A Gamer's Life
by S3AN06
Summary: When a incident at Litwak's causes the Sugar Rush cabinet to glitch, John McCoy is teleported into the game world and must live there. He embarks on countless adventures in the arcade world alongside Candlehead.
1. New Arrival

John McCoy, currently age 15, has lived a normal life along with his parents; they were happy together as a family and that is something John could only love, until one day when he lost his parents due to a horrible incident involving a plane crash that his parents were on while he was left behind under the care of a babysitter. It happened when he was 12 years-old and since then, he has been living in an orphanage until one day when everything changed…

"Today is my day off from doing chores, finally! I have enough money to play nearly every game at Litwak's arcade. But what to play first?" John thought as he entered the arcade center, he first sighted Hero's Duty and inserted the quarters to play; reaching as far as the 24th floor before losing to a horde of Cy-bugs. "Damn! Well, better luck next time. What next?" Sugar Rush's flashing lights caught his eyes and he took a look at the roster for today's racers, "Hmm… I'll play… Gloyd!" inserting the next set of quarters and sat in the seat and pushed start; the cabinet however began shaking and the next thing John knew, he was gone from the arcade center; no one saw either the cabinet shaking violently or John's sudden disappearance.

When John came to, he was above Sugar Rush; falling and screaming very loud until he hit the candy cane trees. The branches broke his fall but also impaled by them, one in the right shoulder and the higher part of his left leg; John was bleeding very badly but despite his injuries, he got up and began walking down a long pathway, "Can't… walk any… longer…" he passed out on the spot.

* * *

A few days later, John woke up in a bed with both branches removed and both holes patched up with the blood; his clothes were on the right, any holes were also patched. "Where the hell am I?" he thought to himself confused, attempting to get out of bed and put his clothes on before leaving the room. "John, what have you got yourself into this time?"

A set of stairs led him down to what appears to be a throne in a large, well decorated room and a little, black-haired girl sat, she had candy pieces in her hair. "You're awake. Welcome to my humble abode! What's your name?" she asked politely, John took another second to admire the room before giving an answer, "John McCoy, but call me John. Who are you?"

The little girl got off the throne and slowly walked towards him, "I am President Vanellope von Schweetz, the rightful ruler of this game. What game are you from?" Vanellope had her arms folded behind her and gave a weird smile; "Game? No I'm from the real world." Vanellope gasped and glitched, "You mean you're a gamer?" "Yeah, nothing wrong with being a gamer." John folded his arms but realised the pain rushing through his shoulders, "No. This is the first time we had someone like you, a real person, in the gaming world. Until something can be done about it, I'll allow you to stay here in the castle. We will get a room prepared for you and more clothes made."

John raised his eyebrow but knew what to say next, "Thank you, Vanellope. Is there anything I can do to pass the time?" Vanellope glitched to the door far behind him. John followed out; "I'm heading to see the other racers, come if you want." Upon hearing 'racers', John's face lit up and smiled, "You mean, I can meet the racers that appear on the arcade?" Vanellope nodded and the two headed off.

* * *

Arriving at the starting line, the racers finished their race for the day as the arcade closes; Vanellope went up to her grandstand and gain all of the racers' attention while John stood in front of them, "Attention fellow racers, a few announcements for today: congrats to Taffyta for winning today's race; we have a new citizen in this game, he is from the real world and will be living in Sugar Rush from now on. His name is John. Last announcement for today is the Sugar Rush Grand Prix is still going ahead and the winning prize is $400,000; that is all."

All of the racers looked at John as he nervously waves back at them, a few approached him and discussed among themselves. An hour has passed and John was strolling through Sugar Rush to get use to knowing the place; Candlehead ran after him from behind, yelling his name to gain his attention. "Yes?" John asked the exhausted racer, "Hello... let me catch my breath..." it took her a minute, John recorded the time; Candlehead wouldn't stop asking John many questions about himself but after question time, they rested on one of the many hills until it was time for them to return to the castle.

"If you would kindly follow Sour Bill, he'll take you to your room." Vanellope informed John as Sour Bill waited by the stairs, Candlehead followed them. "Here's your room, there is fresh clothes on the bed." Sour Bill said with a depressing tone before leaving; "Well, I hope you enjoy your stay here." Candlehead waved, "Cya!" she leaves to head to her room while John enters his room to rest, "I think I'm going to like it here." He fell asleep shortly after.


	2. Friends & Foes

**Chapter 2 of A Gamer's Life; John has spent a week in Sugar Rush and is ready for Game Central Station, will it be easy for him or will he make an enemy?**

* * *

One week has passed since John's eventual arrival in Sugar Rush and has gotten used to everything around him, all the racers, most of the citizens and the game's mechanics as well as the number one rule when the arcade opens: never interfere with the gamer.

"So I take it you're already getting used to our game?" Vanellope surprised John from behind, causing him to slightly jump in reaction, "I think I have. I know everyone here as well as what they do, what is there that I can do around here?" John's injuries have made a fast recovery but he can still feel pain rushing through his shoulder and leg, just the slightest tap can hurt. "I think it's time for you to see the others." John gave Vanellope a strange look, "Others?" he heard footsteps behind him and a shadow engulfing his own. "Hey, Fartfeathers!"

The person behind him raised his big hand which was a quarter the size of his own shadow while he waved to Vanellope; "Hey, Stinkbrain!" Vanellope answered back. John just stood there and deciding to slowly turn to see who the big guy is, only turning out to be Wreck-it Ralph; "Fartfeathers and Stinkbrain?" John had to ask out of curiosity, "You two know each other?" he turns back to Vanellope while pointing back at Ralph. "We've been friends for years now. I take it you don't want an introduction?" John sighed, "I know Ralph, I just never expect him to be so… big."

Candlehead was in the distance and came running over to see them, "Hi guys! What are you talking about?" Vanellope and Ralph were about to walk off but before they did, "Just stuff; Candlehead, why don't you give John a tour around Game Central Station?" Candlehead jumped in excitement; "Okay!" she grabs John's hand and pulled him out of Sugar Rush, "Hey, stop pulling! My shoulder still hurts you know!" Ralph couldn't keep it in him so he let out a laugh.

* * *

Arriving in Game Central Station, John's eyes widen and his jaw dropped with joy; "Please don't tell me I'm dreaming, am I dreaming?" a few game characters that passed gave John a look before going on with their day; "Should I kick you in the leg?" Candlehead said while readying herself into a kicking stance, "What, no! Are you insane?" the two spent up to half an hour going around and meeting people from the likes of Arthur from Ghosts 'n Goblins, Sonic from Sonic the Fighters, the four ghosts from Pac-Man, you name it.

One character in particular has been barging through some of the characters, trying to get somewhere but all he does is shove people out of the way; "Hey, watch where you're going you jerk!" said a random character. "Oh, sorry. I didn't see a pathetic, weak peasant where I'm going." Making his debut in Streets of Rage, Mr. X is regarded as one of the many hated characters in GCS; ever since Litwak decided to included console gaming, one of the consoles were the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis and the game included with it was Streets of Rage 2. "Hey, leave them alone!" John yelled at X from one side of the area while approaching, "Why don't you pick on someone from your own game, pal?!"; "Why don't you make me, boy!" X retaliated.

The two got closer to a fight until Surge Protector got in between them, "Alright, let's break it up. That's enough." X walked off while Candlehead took John to Tappers; they were drinking while some characters came up to John to talk to him. While Candlehead head to the toilets, John was approached by a German scientist by the name of Doktor who has known about John's arrival the previous week; "I must say, it is never known for a gamer to appear in this world of ours." Doktor sat down next to John and payed for his own drink as it arrived. "Allow me to introduce myself, my name is Doktor. Are you familiar with Metal Gear?"

John placed his drink down and answered, "Isn't it that game where you hide in a cardboard box and sneak around places?" Doktor smirked, "Well, if you put it that way. I am currently kick-starting a company by recruiting members; the name of this company is Chrometech." Doktor hands John a small business card before finishing his drink off and preparing to leave. "Hopefully you'll think about joining my company." John did take the card and gave it a quick look before putting it in his pocket, "I'll think about it, thanks." Doktor left afterwards and Candlehead just came back from the toilets; "Who was that?" she had to ask, "Just a friend."

* * *

Back at X's headquarters, Shiva returns to inform X about John; "So it seems we have an outsider knocking around here. Well, he won't be here for long once I've killed him soon." X lit his cigar and sat in his chair like usual.


	3. Sonic BOOM

**After exploring Game Central Station the other day, John was invited by Sonic into his world. Candlehead is immediately kidnapped by Dr. Eggman and the two must save her.**

* * *

While in Sugar Rush, John was talking to Jubileena and Citrusella about the previous day when he encountered X; "The guy was a jerk! I've never seen anyone as bad as him before." John said while eating a sandwich, he was sitting down on a giant jawbreaker stuck in the ground. "The last time I saw him he shoved a guy into an on-coming parade, the person had a broken arm, leg and a fractured neck." Jubileena said with an angered face that suddenly turned to a sad face while she cringed, "I can still remember the sound of the guy's bones breaking and it was horrible." John finished his sandwich and stood to wipe the crumbs off himself; "If the guy wants a fight, I'm right here. I'm not scared of a punk like him; my dad always use to say: _'to stop violence, you must retaliate with violence'_." Sonic slowly crept up from behind and shouted in a deep voice: "Let's fight then!" causing John to immediately jump from the spot where he stood and behind Citrusella; Sonic and Jubileena began laughing while Citrusella tried to keep it in herself.

"You…" John swore under his breath; "Sorry, couldn't help myself. Anyway, you must be the so-called outsider from the real world." John rose up from behind Citrusella and walk towards Sonic with his arms folded, "That will be me. What do you want?" before Sonic answers, Jubileena and Citrusella walk away while waving, "See you guys later." John waves back and then turns attention to the blue hedgehog; "I just wanted to see you in person but a friend of mine wants to talk to you." He said, "What friend?" John responded, he wasn't sure if Sonic was really tricking him or telling the truth; "His name is Tails and he is waiting back in my game, come if you want." John thought for a second, deciding whether or not to go, he made his choice and followed.

* * *

Arriving in Green Hill Zone, John was admiring the beauty of the land around him, "Wow, I never seen a place so bodacious before!" out from nowhere a two-tailed fox approaches, "Amazing! A real human gamer in our arcade!" the fox, named Tails, looked at John with a disturbing smile, "What's your name, sir?" Tails asked. "It's John McCoy. So, you're Tails. A bit odd for a fox to have two tails, don't you think?" he looked at Tails' tails; John was not a fan of the Sonic franchise but has heard of the game once in a while. "I was born with these. Also, check this out!" Tails jumps in the air and uses his tails like a propeller, allowing him to fly; "You can fly? That's something I've always wished to do!" John said while smiling as Tails lowers to the ground.

Footsteps were heard behind the three and they turn their attention to the large rocks, believing that someone was watching them; "Come out, whoever you are!" Sonic yelled at the rocks. Out came Candlehead who looked down with a sad yet innocent face, "I'm sorry." John approached her and knelt down to her height, "What are you doing here? Are you following me?" he asked. Candlehead nodded her head, "I couldn't find anyone to hang out with. Taffyta was busy so I came looking for you." John stood back up and held his hand out, indicating to tag along; "You should've said earlier, I would've waited for you." Candlehead slowly smiles and took his hand; "Sorry about that. Anyway, this is Candlehead. Candlehead, these two are Sonic and Tails." John introduced them, "We've met once." Sonic said while he looked back at the wedding with Felix and Calhoun.

Inside Eggman's base, Eggman was using a stealth camera implanted on a flower near the four to watch them and hear in on their conversation; "How intriguing... a real gamer, here in the arcade?" He said as Orbot and Cubot appeared behind him, also listening in on the four; "So I guess you're planning to kidnap him or something?" Orbot said, he read Eggman's mind, "I will torture him into spilling how he got from the real world into the game world, then I will use it to get myself into the real world and conquer it!" Eggman deactivated the monitor and moved towards his Egg Mobile. "And how are you going to capture him exactly?" Orbot asked with his arms on his hips; "With this, you moronic bot! I'll capture him when they are at least expecting it! Ho ho ho!" his laugh turned into coughing; Eggman entered his mobile and flew out of the base.

"-high score was 429,667 on Pac-Man." John was talking to Sonic while Candlehead was distracting herself with Amy Rose and Tails; "Looks like your friend over there is getting along with Tails and Amy." Sonic said while the two look at the three; "Yeah…" John gave a small sigh which Sonic notices. A weird noise is heard and the five search for it, it revealed to be the Egg Mobile with a cage below to capture animals with; Eggman attempted to go for John but Candlehead shoves him to the side, capturing her instead. "No, no no! You weren't supposed to be the one captured! Argh… anyway, she should suffice for my plan." Eggman returns back to his base with Candlehead still inside the cage; "Damn it! I need to save her!" John fell to his knees in disappointment, he got back up and began running towards the base; Sonic ran alongside him. "You're not taking Eggman on alone." Sonic said, the two ran as fast as they could… Sonic was already at the base's entrance while John had some distance to go.

* * *

Inside Eggman's base, Candlehead was inside a small chamber with glass surrounding her; Eggman approached the console in front of him and flicked a lever, "Within 10 minutes, you will be another one of my servants once you're fully roboticized!" he said while letting out his signature laughing; _'Beginning roboticizing process.'_ is heard from the console. Candlehead was being scanned by the machine before the whole transformation begins; Sonic and John were crawling through the air vents, Sonic waved his hand near his nose in disgust; "Eggman sure knows how to keep the eggs rotting…" John continued crawling but with an embarrassed face, "Sorry. That was me."

They make it to the room where Candlehead is held; John ran to the glass dome that she was trapped inside while Sonic took a look at the chamber and realised something, "Oh no, not the Roboticizer…" he quickly said, "The what?" John replied as he didn't clearly catch what Sonic said. _'Roboticizing is at 20% complete.'_ Candlehead legs were already covered in mechanical parts and it was just halfway passing her skirt; "Hurry guys! I can't feel my legs!" Sonic prepared a charged Spin-dash but before he could break the machine, a voice was heard from behind: "Break that glass and your friend will stay like that forever!" it was Eggman inside another mech, the Eggterminator, a machine which is over 30ft tall and supports many different kinds of weapons.

"Should you refuse to tell me your secret, I will kill her!" Eggman threatened John who looked confused, "What secret?" he asks while angered; Metal Sonic lands right in front of John and prepares himself to fight. "The secret to escaping the arcade world. You got here one way so I want to know myself so I can escape to the real world and take it all over!" Eggman pushed a button which made the machine reveal a battalion of weaponry which all aimed at the two; "I don't know how I even got here! Besides, why should I tell an ugly, pathetic loser like you how I got here?!" the insults made Eggman even more aggravated until he opened fire upon the two, Sonic distracts Eggman while Metal fights John. "Oh crap! This is unfair…" John slowly backed up to a table with a sword on it, he picks it up and positions himself in that where the sword guards him; Metal transforms his arms into make-shifts swords, "Now this is really unfair!"

 _'Roboticizing process is at 30% complete.'_ "Seven minutes hedgehog! You will fail to save your friend on time!" a heat-seeking missile was sent out of the mech to chase after Sonic who ran around and lured it into the mech itself, greatly damaging it. "You just forgot the most important fact about me Egghead: I'm the fastest thing alive! Time is always on my side!" Sonic does another Spin-dash and successfully cuts through the mech's body, destroying it in the process.

John is holding out by himself against Metal who seems to be slashing at John at a fast paste; just one wrong move will result in either death or a lost limb, "You can't win this fight. Want to know why?" the two clash swords together and John got in close enough to whisper: "You can't defeat a McCoy!" John quickly forced Metal off him and he does a spin kick to knock Metal into a wall where John then throws the sword through Metal's torso, destroying him. Sonic ran over to John who said to the hedgehog a funny saying: "A McCoy never loses a fight.

It's what my dad use to always say when he's challenged." _'Roboticizing is at 40% complete.'_ The two moved over to the console and looked for the off-switch; Eggman emerges from the trashed mech; Tails made his own way in and saw the destruction of the room as well as Candlehead stuck inside the Roboticizer. Sonic directed Tails to the console; "Can you help us here? We don't know what we're doing." Sonic said, "I can reverse the process of the roboticizing." Tails pulled a few levers and pushed a few buttons which resulted in the whole process being reversed; _'Roboticizing has been cancelled.'_ Candlehead's legs and lower body were free from the roboticizing and she was able to escape; Eggman hits a button on the Egg Mobile which causes an alarm to sound inside the base, _'Self-destruction has been activated. Please evacuated immediately.'_ Eggman made his escape while the four were left in the room; "We need to get out of here!" John yelled as the alarm was too loud. Luckily, one of Eggman's inventions in the room was a detonator bomb which Tails planted on the wall, detonating the bomb and escaping through the hole in the wall.

On a mountain near the base, the four watched as the base self-destructed, the resulting explosion nearly blinding them; "Why is it that every time someone builds a base, they have to implement a self-destruct function?" John jokingly mentions; later, they are next to the game's exit as John and Candlehead are about to leave, "So do you think Eggman will learn his lesson?" Tails ask the three, "Hopefully he did. If he didn't and he tries to capture me again-" John was saying until Sonic interrupted him, "You'll be ready for him, it's not the first time I've heard you say that." John stood there speechless for a few seconds before Candlehead walked towards the exit while waving back at Sonic and Tails; "Until next time." John said after fist-bumping the two and he leaves.

* * *

 **A quick note: Another story is currently being made on the crossover section of Wreck-it Ralph titled 'Pyrokinesis Candlehead' and is a crossover between Sonic and Wreck-it Ralph. Please check it out if you like; it does not connect with the 'A Gamer's Life' story or with this chapter. Thank you for reading this chapter.**


	4. Sticky Situation

**Swizzle has finally got a date with Sticky Wipplesnit, he however doesn't know how to be fully romantic on a date and asks for John's help.**

* * *

Just a random day in Sugar Rush for everyone but one racer, Swizzle was running through most of the game in a desperate need for something; he comes across Crumbelina and Snowanna who were just minding their own business. "Have any of you guys seen John anywhere?" he asked though he did sound a bit tired from the running but he didn't want to take a long time; "Why? What's the rush?" Snowanna questioned him out of curiosity, "It's really important." He even looked panicked, whether it was he done something wrong or something else was happening, he wanted John for a reason, a reason that he wanted kept private. "Have you tried searching in the castle? That was the last place I saw him." Crumbelina said; without saying thank you, Swizzle just left in a hurry. "Geez, you think after all we do for him, he never gives us credit." Crumbelina said to Snowanna who shook her shoulders.

Inside the castle, Swizzle ran up the stairs to the hallway with the bedrooms, searching each one incase if John went to see any other racer; since it was early in the morning, a few racer were still in bed asleep with their bedroom doors either open slightly or closed. He came across Gloyd's room and found that he, John and Candlehead were playing on the console he owned; "John, I need yo-"John raised his hand to indicate to wait as he was trying to defeat Gloyd at the game they were playing. "Yes! I win!" Gloyd yelled in excitement while John smirked at his own defeat; "Will you please shut up over there!" one of the other racers had to shout as they were trying to sleep. "Sorry! Anyway, what do you want?"

John placed the controller on the bed and turns his attention to Swizzle who stood at the bedroom entrance, "Can I talk to you alone? It's a private matter." After that, John got off the bed and left the room with Swizzle, he closed the door as Candlehead took the controller to play against Gloyd; "What's wrong?" John asked, "Do you remember the recolor, Sticky Wipplesnit?" Swizzle tested John's knowledge of the racer, while he gave the thinking gesture, "Ah yes, the Minty recolor. What of her?" John guessed correctly. "Well, I was speaking to her today and… I thought the conversation was dropping dead so I… asked her out on a date." Swizzle said while rubbing the back of his head under his hat, thinking that this conversation is going to embarrass him. "That's good. Isn't it?" John delightfully said when Swizzle rolled his eyes down, "When you put it that way, yeah but… I don't know how to date a girl."

He continued to roll his eyes down every time he raised them to look at John who in turn, gave the shocked impression; "You don't know how to date? So why are you telling me this?" John immediately crossed his arms, "Because I thought you would be the best person to ask advice from or to teach me a thing or two about dating." From what Swizzle admitted, John's face turned slightly red, "I'll see what I can do. I never dated myself but I may know a few things that might help. When is this date?" the two began walking down the hallway; "It's tomorrow at 9:30PM. I froze when she left after agreeing." John placed his hand on Swizzle's shoulder, "Then we shall begin your training right away."

* * *

John waited in the library since the room had no one inside except for himself and Candlehead as they waited for Swizzle to arrive which he did; "Ok, let's start with the basics." John said as Candlehead approached the two. "Why is Candlehead here?" Swizzle asked in confusion, "She agreed to help; she'll impersonate your date. Anyway, first greet her upon arriving with these." John said while handing Swizzle fake flowers to give to Candlehead; "You, erm… look great, Candlehead."

Swizzle gave her the flowers but John had to quickly stop them for a second. "When complimenting them, don't go 'erm' every time. It sounds as if you're really judging their appearance. Also remember to kiss them on the cheek to show your affection towards them but for this, just don't kiss Candlehead." They resume the practice which lasted a few retries after a few mistakes but Swizzle has just managed well; using different props that were left on a computer chair.

A knock was heard on the door as a familiar voice was also heard, "Hello. Is anyone in here?" it was Sticky, she opened the door and Swizzle, due to being the closest to the door, quickly came to see her. "Hey Swizzie, what are you doing in here by yourself?" she asked as she attempted to peak into the room; John quickly kicked the chair with the props on far behind a few book shelves while Candlehead picked up a nearby book and pretended to read it; "I'm with John and Candlehead. We're just looking for a few books to read." He said, thinking Sticky would buy the story and she did; "Ok, I came to remind you about tomorrow. I'm looking forward to it." She giggles as Swizzle answers back, "Same here. Well, see you then." Sticky left to head back to her room while Swizzle closed the door and sighed. "That was close." Candlehead placed the book down and went after the chair while John laughed, "Swizzie?"

Swizzle blushed and smirked as well before John and Candlehead, who was carrying the props, came to the door. "So now you know what you're doing. Let's go over the plan one more time." Swizzle nodded, "I meet up with Sticky, greet her with flowers and a kiss; we will head over to that new restaurant that's recently opened for food and a few arcade amusement games, then we will take a slow walk back here to end the night." Swizzle counted each point and John corrected the order they go in. "The only thing I can say from here is good luck tomorrow." John says as they left the library.

* * *

The night came, Swizzle was dressed nicely in a suit while he waited patiently for Sticky; he was nervous, thinking that he might forget something or would say something that will offend her. "Hey Swizzie!" Sticky came running along, she was wearing a cyan colored dress and heels. "Hello. You look beautiful!" Swizzle said as he revealed flowers from behind him and gave them to her and kissed her on the cheek; "Thank you! You don't look too bad yourself." Sticky responded as Swizzle held his hand out, "Shall we get going?" she took his arm and they left Sugar Rush. John was watching on them from behind objects and the thing is Swizzle doesn't know he's watching them.

The two made their way into a city game from a console game and to a restaurant where they got something to eat; they then went to the arcade area of the restaurant to play on a few games such as Dance Dance Revolution and Let's Go Jungle. As John was keeping an eye on the two, a Cy-bug appears out of nowhere and stares directly at him, "Oh hey, you'll be nice to me won't you?" the Cy-bug screeches and pounces to attack John who defended himself. After a few fun games, Swizzle and Sticky walked back to Sugar Rush; "That was fun! We should do that again someday." Sticky said while resting her head on Swizzle's shoulder as they walked, "I agree, but tonight was the best night."

Inside the castle, Swizzle took Sticky to her room and before departing, she kisses him on the lips, "Good night." She left the hallway to her room while Swizzle continued to his room. John approached Swizzle while covered in green blood and also with cuts and bruises, "What the heck happened to you?!" John began shaking, "I'm just gonna lay here…" he passes out on the spot while Swizzle leaves him.


	5. Steel Body

**John finally decides to check out Chrometech to see what Doktor has to offer, plus he gets a shiny new body (as a graduation present).**

* * *

John was walking through Game Central Station alongside Candlehead to visit Doktor in his soon to be demolished headquarters; "Why did it take you so long to decide to go now, John?" Candlehead asked while she held onto his hand, "I don't know, guess you could say I was busy recently… being in a hospital bed." John scratched the back of his head. "What happened then? Some were saying you were attacked by a Cy-bug." She stopped him just to asking him this question; on John's face, Candlehead could see a few scratches from the claws of the Cy-bug; "Yes that is true but I didn't use any weapons to kill it, I had to use my fists and I'll tell you, it was hard."

They continued their way on to Doktor; once they've arrived, his lab was covered in packed boxes of many different sizes; "John, so you finally arrived." In his office, Doktor was packing his trophies from the likes of the most left hands achieved to one of his earliest achievements; "As you can see, I'm a bit busy with packing up everything here." John picked up a trophy to admire it while Candlehead wasted her time by looking at the other boxes; "What are you doing?" John placed the trophy back down which Doktor picked back up and placed it inside the box and uses tape to close it, "I have decided to move out of this place and to somewhere new. That is the problem as I don't have anywhere to construct Chrometech."

Doktor wrote on the box 'Trophies' and placed it on a pile of other boxes to be sent off to the cargo chopper; "I may have someone who will help, after some persuasion." Candlehead said behind John, "And that may be…?" John waited for Candlehead to say who but is distracted by John and Doktor staring at her. "I was thinking Vanellope would help." Candlehead could be onto something here as John thought but he believes it would be a long shot to convince Vanellope to help Doktor build Chrometech.

* * *

At the castle, John was asking Vanellope who disagreed with the idea, "John, it's a risk for ourselves. What if the gamers see the facility in the background?" Vanellope argued with John who pleaded, "It won't be in the way of anything, I promise." Vanellope sighed deeply. "What does he want me to do?" Vanellope said in a monotone voice which John slightly smiled, "He just wants your permission to construct his new facility here in Sugar Rush. That's all."

Yet again, Vanellope sighed but this time she put on a slight smile to hint towards John, "Fine, he can build his facility here. How long will it take?" John handed a small piece of paper that had numbers on it, "Each department of the facility should take about two to three weeks to be constructed." "If I may, once my corporation is complete, we'll take care of any work you have here. Our aim is to ensure that peace, satisfaction and safety is ruled over the arcade and its games." Doktor said as he came walking through the doors, he was followed by Candlehead who took her jacket off.

"If I allow you to proceed with your work here, what will I get out of this?" Vanellope said, she wanted to make sure that she gets something out of her generous act; "My employees will do anything you ask them to do; they will make sure your tasks are 100% complete within the next 24 hours of commanding them." With that said, Doktor handed Vanellope a contract that she signed; two hours later, construction began on the facility and its location is directly behind the castle but put far back and out of sight of gamers. Within three months, the facility was complete.

Doktor had every room all set up and ready to be used; there were his office, the Intel room, the briefing room, the VR training room, a medic center, a cafeteria with kitchen, vehicle hangar and finally a weapons room. "Now this is quite the setup!" John commended, Doktor was sorting out his files which mostly contain information on his employees and the facility itself.

"I appreciate all the help you and your friends put in constructing Chrometech, John." Doktor happily said after placing the last of the files in the filing cabinet, "With this many employees joining on, we'll be ensuring peace across the arcade in no time."

"The VR should be efficient for their training. If I can remember, you said something about showing me something." John claimed, "Ja, if you would follow me." Doktor took John to the VR training room and showed him a black mech suit; "It is made out of titanium alloy to ensure that the suit can withstand intense heat and it has been mixed with other material to make the armor bulletproof and to allow the user to lift heavy objects with ease, all thanks to the endoskeleton materials that I use within cyborgs." The suit was design to fit John and only him; John's jaw dropped in surprise as he now owns his very own suit.

"Awesome! It's like the Iron Man suit, only better!" one thing Doktor forgot to mention was the color can be changed to how John imagines it but he knew John would figure it out; "Before you begin your training with it, there is a few other things I need to mention about the suit. The weapons are high-energy plasma blasts from the palms, miniature guns within each arm which the bullets are capable of penetrating thick armor and six small HEAT missiles located on the back. You are capable of flight through the thrusters in the feet which travels at 433kph (269.1mph)."

John put the suit on and entered the VR space, Doktor was behind a control panel which operates what appears in VR and how difficult the VR will be. "You will feel like you're being injured but you won't die from it. Don't mess up with your training; you will be put in a fight against two armed soldiers." Doktor said as he pushed a button which a simulation of Game Central Station appeared; John had the two guys aiming at him, causing John to use the plasma cannons on the armor's palms to quickly kill the two before they had the chance to open fire. "Very good. Now, I am going to increase the difficulty as well as the opposition you will be facing."

After extended training, John slowly began getting used to using his weapons and suit capabilities; Candlehead came in to watch John perform until he was finished. "Hey Candlehead, check this out!" John began taking flight as he slowly ascended from the ground and flew around the room before returning to solid ground. "Cool! Can I get one of those?" Candlehead begged but was refused by both John and Doktor; "So with this suit, nothing will stop us from bringing peace to the arcade." John said as the three walked out of the VR room, "Well, it will take time I suppose. Peace does not come around easy these days." Doktor remarked; they would see the large number of employees all at the ready for the big speech Doktor was about to give them but for John and Candlehead, they returned back to the castle to end the day.

* * *

 **And so Chrometech is established and John finally has his new armor suit; at the end of every five chapters, I will include a bloopers section below which will have one blooper for each chapter. Pretend like if it's a TV show or something; anyways, I hope you all enjoy the story and extras.**

Chapter 1 - New Arrival:

After falling, John was impaled by the branches in the leg and shoulder; as he tried to climb out from the small ditch he was in, John lost his balance and fell back in. "Cut!" the director shouted, "Sorry, my bad."

Chapter 2 - Friends & Foes:

John was amazed by the sight of all the game characters; "Please tell me I'm dreaming, am I dreaming?" a few game characters that passed gave John a look before going on with their day; "Should I kick you in the leg?" Candlehead said while readying herself into a kicking stance, "What, no! are you insane?" Regardless, Candlehead kicked him so hard, John fell to the floor in pain, "That wasn't in the script!"

Chapter 3 - Sonic BOOM:

Eggman attempts to capture John with the cage below the Egg Mobile; Candlehead dives in to push John out of the way but unfortunately for Eggman, he loses control of the Egg Mobile, causing it to go too far and crash. "CUT!" the director yet again yelled, "The thing just controlled itself." Eggman said while rubbing his head in pain.

Chapter 4 - Sticky Situation:

Sticky tried to peak into the library to see what was going on but Swizzle was blocking the way; Candlehead picked up the nearest book and pretended to read it while John had all the props on the computer chair. John kicks the chair too hard, causing it to fall over and all the props were on the floor in visible sight of Sticky who giggled while the director pinched his eyes in disappointment. "Goddamn it!" John shouted while Candlehead came over to Swizzle and Sticky, "Powerful kick if you ask me."

Chapter 5 - Steel Body:

Candlehead came to watch John perform until he was finished; "Hey Candlehead, check this out!" the thrusters didn't work and John never took off. "Cue the sound effects!" John held his arms out in a plane formation and pretended to fly around while Candlehead made spaceship noises which cause everyone, even the director to laugh.


	6. Missing Candlehat

**What does Candlehead do when she is separated from her candle hat?**

* * *

What was once a beautiful morning in Sugar Rush for many has became a nightmare for one racer; Vanellope, John and Ralph were in the throne room, just minding their own business when all of a sudden, "My candle has gone missing!" Candlehead ran through the door and yelled at the three who just gave Candlehead a glance before removing all attentions except for John, "Where did you leave it?" he said, though John has been in the arcade for quite some time by now, he wasn't fully aware of Candlehead's love for her candle.

"I-I Don't know. I can't find it anywhere! I hope it's alright." She nervously said; all of the other racers as well as Duncan and Wynnchel, each one of them looked at Candlehead in a strange manner. "Oh, not this again." Taffyta mumbled which brought confusion to John, "Again?" tears were running down the side of Candlehead's face as she was even more worried about her candle more than anything else.

"Every time Candlehead loses her candle, she becomes all dramatic until the worst part hits." Torvald acknowledged, John was still confused as to why Candlehead can be distressed over such an item. "Maybe you've left it in your kart from yesterday." Swizzle gloated, causing Candlehead to gulp, "It's not. I never leave my candle in the kart." She slowly expands her eyes and covers her mouth each time; "How about, you placed it in your laundry basket by accident." Jubileena exclaimed, Candlehead widen her eyes more, "My candle never ends up in the laundry pile, I always make sure of that." Vanellope smacked her hand on her face; "You must've left it in Game Central Station and someone must've picked it up and took it with them." Gloyd joked.

Candlehead unleashed a ear-piercing scream which caused anything made out of glass nearby to smash into thousands of tiny pieces, including Wynnchel and Duncan's sunglasses; her scream echoed throughout the arcade world into many other games. "What the hell was that?!" a random character said, "Whatever it was, that was awesome!"

Vanellope had enough, she called in her guards and demanded them to force everyone except Candlehead and Ralph out of the room, "Don't come back until you find that candle!" the doors were slammed shut; Vanellope returned to the tearful Candlehead and took her hand, "Come with me, we'll make you a new candle." Ralph didn't know what to do until he followed on; "Nothing will ever replace my precious candle…" she weakly exclaimed.

Outside the throne room, everybody looked disappointed while Wynnchel and Duncan replaced the broken sunglasses with a new pair. "Now what do we do?" Adorabeezle questioned, everyone shook their shoulders and looked at each other; "You guys are going to do what Vanellope said, we're going to Tappers." Wynnchel demanded which annoyed each racer, "Like hell you will! You two are going to help us out otherwise I'll tell Candlehead that you said her candle was a waste and ugly." John threatened the two who were speechless until the group made a move; it was time for them to start searching by splitting into groups.

Vanellope took Candlehead to a separate room that has many different equipment which they would use to make a new candle. "We'll make you a new candle, right Ralph?" Vanellope smirked and nervously said to Ralph who stood at the entrance, "Um, yeah." Candlehead was still crying, even when Vanellope shown her a box full of multicolored candles; two of Vanellope servants were going through the collection of candles and placing them down on a table in a near pile. She was told to pick one so they can decorate it in a way as she sees fit; "I don't know... I prefer my old candle..." Candlehead sniffs and wipes the tears from her eyes, "Come on Candlehead, you got to let it go and move on to a new candle." Vanellope sarcastically said, she didn't really care about the candle; instead she cared more about shutting Candlehead up. "Well... ok."

* * *

Though the racers divided into groups in hopes of finding the candle faster, their progression became more of a challenge than anticipated; one group searched through Candy Village, another searched around the starting line and within the grandstands while the final group, consisting of John, Taffyta, Wynnchel and Duncan, went over to Tappers as they believe that the candle may be inside the 'Lost and Found' box. "Hey, Tapper. You don't suppose to know if a candlehat was left here by accident?" John asked; the man was always working every day due to being his job in and out of game time; "A lot of things go missing or are left here by accident on occasion. Check the Lost and Found, you might find what you're looking for there."

Tapper pointed to the hallway behind him and everyone else; John and Taffyta proceeded to the box while Wynnchel and Duncan took the time to buy a drink. John dug through the box while Taffyta stood by and looked to see if he passes it, "I can't see how it would end up in here. Why couldn't she just make a new candle to replace her old one?" John simply wanted to know; he's been friends with Candlehead for a few months now but has never seen anyone act like that. "Candlehead has always been like that, from the day we were plugged in up to this day. One time, her candle was snapped in half by a stranger who tried to rob us; Candlehead got upset, then mad until she exploded in the guy's face. He ran away afterwards, holding his hands at his own butt." Taffyta told him, laughing at old memories which also cause John to laugh too.

"Well, it's not here. We should head back and see how the others are doing." With that said, the two place everything back into the box and leave to find Wynnchel and Duncan still drinking; "Guys, come on!" Taffyta yelled at them as they drank their drinks whole before running out after them.

* * *

Upon returning, all the groups met up outside the castle; "We searched through the village but couldn't find it. Even Candlehead's fans helped us out." Minty informed them, "No luck on our end as well. We literally searched through each grandstand, on the seats as well as under them and still couldn't find the candle." Rancis also informed the others on his group's progression. "Guess we're gonna admit the truth and get this over with then."

Everyone walked into the castle and into the room where Vanellope was after being guided there, Vanellope was worn out after making at least one hundred different candle designs while Ralph was already finished making the last one; Candlehead was nowhere in sight. "Where's Candlehead?" John asked the tired president, "She said not one candle suited her or could replace her old candle so she said that she'll be in her bedroom. She left like a minute ago. Please tell me you found the stupid candle?" she pleaded for them to say yes but was shattered when they shook their heads.

They heard a scream coming from Candlehead's room so they rushed there to see what's wrong; Candlehead had her back facing everyone and slowly turned to face them, holding her hat; "You found it. Where was it?" Torvald asked but to their disappointment... "I found it on my bed. Oh how I missed it!" Candlehead put her candlehat back on while everyone else left, highly disappointed.

* * *

 **Imagine if Candlehead was to lose the candle and has no way of getting it back? It would've been the definition of hell in a nutshell.**


	7. Halloween Bash

**It is close to Halloween and Vanellope is throwing a party in the castle; Gloyd attempts to rejuvenate an urban legend, the Mentos Monster.**

* * *

It's October the 29th in Sugar Rush and Vanellope seems to be a bit busy; Jubileena and Citrusella were entering the ball room where they see Vanellope commanding the Oreo servants to move objects around; "What's going on in here?" Citrusella asks, confused and disturbed by some of the objects as they contain images of monsters like Dracula and zombies.

"Because it's nearly Halloween, I decided that it'd be best to throw a Halloween party here." Still, both Jubileena and Citrusella looked confused, "What's Halloween?" Jubileena asked, Vanellope slapped her hand on her face hard, "You guys seriously don't know what Halloween is? I'll tell you; Halloween is a night of fright where people dress up in scary costumes and go trick or treating which means going door-to-door and getting candy of people." Vanellope explained, they never had a Halloween party before, even when King Candy was ruler and especially while Vanellope is currently the rightful ruler.

Vanellope just never had the chance to host one until now; "Also I am adding a little competition: whoever has the most terrifying costume at the party will win a prize!" after that, the two got excited, "We should get our costume together then, Ci." Jubileena said to her recolor self who responded with a nod and they left the room in a hurry.

Up in Candlehead's room, John sat on the bed while trying to help Candlehead to decide which costume to wear; "Which one? The cowgirl, the ninja or the fairy?" Candlehead questioned John who bothered himself with his own costume which was a vampire outfit complete with fangs, "Try each one on and I'll choose." Candlehead took off her normal clothes and put on each costume in order; the first costume didn't fit her any more, the second had a rip in the back, the third costume fitted perfectly; "I look fat in this." Candlehead whined about her opinion, "You look perfectly normal to me. I still need to try out mine, maybe later." John said; Candlehead took the costume off and put her regular clothes on.

Gloyd intruded on them and handed John a book, "Look at this! It's a book of urban legends and there are instructions to summon the Mentos Monster!" Gloyd babble with information out of random which had the two confused, "Calm down, Gloyd! Rephrase what you said and don't shove that book in my face. Speaking of books, since when did you read?" John sarcastically asked. "I found in this book that a monster can be summoned with the right amount of items which I so happen to have right now. Can you help me?" Gloyd asked without thinking straight, "Gloyd, you do know that book was made for entertaining purposes only? It's all fake."

Candlehead giggled when Gloyd looked embarrassed but instead he retaliated. "You don't know that! I'll prove it to you; in fact I'll prove it to everyone!" Gloyd stormed out of the room and out of the castle while passing Jubileena and Citrusella. "I wonder what's wrong with him... oh well."

* * *

Two nights later, the party had begun and everybody was there except Gloyd who was miles away from the castle, he has all of the items as mentioned in the book.

"Tonight, everyone will finally witness the Mentos Monster and when they do, they'll praise me for my hard work." He asserted, placing each item around a red circle while a fragment of a mentos is placed in the center; chanting a spell from the book which caused the red circle to light up and the items around it as well the mentos to float and spin out of control.

The items disappeared and the mentos fell back to the ground; disappointed, Gloyd frowned before he was turning around to head back to the castle but got stopped by an explosion and then the overtaking shadow of the monster that stood behind him. The Mentos Monster was around 35ft tall and had a grotesque face, it was confused on where it stood and it noticed Gloyd but it didn't attack him, instead it knelt down to his height and made gibberish noises.

"You won' hurt me will you?" Gloyd questioned the beast which made even more gibberish noises until it heard faint music coming from the distance; it got up and began walking towards the music, "No, no, no! Where are you going?! Oh I'm so dead if Vanellope finds out." Gloyd took a shortcut to get to the castle faster.

* * *

Inside the castle, many different game characters were dressed up as many famous monsters; Vanellope stood on a stage with a microphone in front of her, she was a zombie queen. "Is this thing working? Hello... ok. Attention monsters, the costume competition is about to commence; sign up at the desk to the side of the stage and within half an hour, we will decide which one of you is the winner."

Vanellope got off the stage when everyone lined up and began signing; Vanellope had made her way to the others being Ralph, Taffyta, John, Candlehead and Doktor with their costumes being Frankenstein's Monster, female Grim Reaper, Dracula, fairy and mad scientist. Before anyone could talk, Gloyd bursts through the doors while trying to catch his breath; "Gloyd, what's wrong with you? Where's your costume?" Vanellope asked.

"Guys... get out, hurry before it gets here!" Gloyd demanded everyone who just stared at him, "Before what gets here?" Vanellope asked, "The Mentos Monster!" everyone laughed at Gloyd. "No, I'm serious! It's coming here and it's not stopping!" a few moments later, the entire room began shaking and everyone started to panic.

The roof was torn off by the monster; everyone ran around screaming while Ralph and John encountered the monster. "See, I told you so!" Gloyd said in a cocky tone; John tested out a new mechanism on his armor suit, pressing a secret button to summon the entire suit to his position which he put it on himself.

Ralph made the first hit on the left leg, all it did was make a little crack and the monster's reaction was a load roar; John gained height by jumping off Ralph's shoulder and boosting upwards to land a few shots with the plasma cannons. No damage was dealt to the monster and in turn, John was smacked to a wall and Ralph was kicked into the food table.

"Damn it!" John bellowed in pain, he stood back up and kicked another table into the leg of the monster; Doktor looked on and saw a small amount of Coca Cola dissolve the leg. "That's it! John, Ralph, use as much Cola as you can!" Doktor suggested which gave the two an idea to combine an attack. "Ralph, you ready?" John asked Ralph who grinned and nodded his head; he grabs John by his legs, spins him around at a fast paste and let go of him which he then rocketed into the monster and uses the thrusters to fly out of the castle and over to Diet Cola Mountain.

The impact on the mountain caused the mentos platform to break, it was unsteady and could give way any second; regardless of the collapsing platform, John still fought against the monster. "This better work or I'm going to kill Gloyd!" John took off to the skies and aimed all the HEAT missiles he had at different spots of the platform. The resulting blasts caused the platform to collapse and the mentos fell into the hot Cola below; the Mentos Monster jumped out for John but couldn't reach him, instead it grabbed a hold of the side of the mountain but that didn't save it from the eruption.

Returning back to the party, everyone came out of hiding, happy to know they're safe; Gloyd was held by two Oreo guards as Vanellope came over to them, "Because of the damage you've caused to the castle as well as putting many people's lives at risk, I requested that you will be punished by being put into the Fungeon for a week." With that said Gloyd was taken out of the room and placed into a cell; "I'll have this place repaired in no-time but who won the costume competition?" Vanellope asked the crowd of competitors. John had them all line up and he would throw the trophy (wasn't heavy or large) up into the air for the people to try and catch, it landed in the hands of Jubileena and Citrusella who were dressed up as conjoined twins hence their appearance as regular and recolor. "Then I guess you two are this year's Halloween winners!" Vanellope exclaimed as everybody cheered for the two.

The next morning, John approached Vanellope who sat on her throne; "Well yesterday was a complete disaster!" John stated, "No kiddin'. Just how did Gloyd make that thing appear?" Vanellope questioned with seriousness, "He was bickering on about seeing it in some book." John was honest with his answer. "Well in that case, we better keep an eye on Gloyd the next time he reads a book." The two laughed until John left the room.

* * *

 **Since when did Gloyd ever read a book? Anyway, you may have noticed the style of the paragraphs has changed, it's because some were complaining that the paragraphs were all clustered up together and hard to read. It will be like this from now on and even I prefer it this way.**


	8. The Mysterious Girl

**After exploring Game Central Station, John finds a little girl with extraordinary powers, could she be friendly or a threat? (Tessa Loveday is owned by user jubileena)**

* * *

"Oh, come on!" John shouted when he was pitted against a pyro Minotaur wielding a flaming battle axe, its size was bigger than John, bigger than Ralph to be exact. It charges at John with its pointy, sharp horns which he just barely dodges and while at it, he uses the plasma cannons to fire at the Minotaur to attempt to kill it, nothing seems to be working.

"First I get my ass handed to me by Crumbelina at cards, now I have to deal with this thing. What's next, framed for murder while I'm at it?!" John activated the thrusters to enable flight; the Minotaur follows after him, swinging its axe at him every three seconds but misses every time; a water tank was over in the distance, "Bingo! Over here, bully!"

Luring it into the water tank, John positioned it close enough to shoot the tank with plasma shots that the water poured out and extinguished the flames, weakening the Minotaur; with a well-aimed shot, John kills the Minotaur with a mini-HEAT missile. The city game he was in was huge in size and the area was far out of the city near a abandoned factory; the police were all over the place while John snuck out of their sights and left the game.

John thought about going to Tappers to help him forget the fight but as he makes it to the game's entrance at the station, he saw a little girl passing by that looked homeless; "Hey, little one, wait!" John gave chase through the populated station after the little girl. She came to a dead-end; John was just a few feet behind her and within seconds, she disappeared, "What the… Where did she go?" John left the area and returned to Tappers to drink.

* * *

Later in the day, John was in Chrometech with Doktor, there he was telling Doktor everything he saw, "-and then she just disappeared." Doktor looked confused, he couldn't think of anyone with that kind of power at such a young age other than Vanellope with her glitching. "I will have a few agents sent out to search for this girl. As for you, I heard you caused so much damage to the abandoned factory in that game a few hours ago." Doktor said, John blushed and smirked, "I-I don't know what you're talking about. Me?"

Doktor activated a monitor that had shown screenshots of the scene with a lot of burn marks from the plasma blasts; Doktor looked angry at John, "We don't cause damage to anything, even if it is from something abandoned. We are to maintain a safe environment in other games." John sighed, "Hey, it's not my fault some Minotaur tried to attack me. If I haven't used the convenient placed water tank there, I wouldn't be here right now." Doktor turned the monitor off and the two left his office, "Well you're going to have to learn how to not use the environment to gain advantage over your foes. I may have something to add to your arsenal of weapons, if you just follow me."

Doktor said, they made their way to the weapons hangar where a claymore sword rested on display. "This sword is a high-frequency claymore sword, capable of slicing through anything, thick and thin. The sword has also been strengthened to withstand strong blows as well as dealing strong blows to opponents." Doktor informed John and took the sword off the display and gave it to him; "Go train with it. I'm sure you'll like it." With that said, John left for the VR room to begin his training.

The day was over and John returned to his room to lay on his bed when Candlehead came to the door; "Hey John; didn't see you at all today." She said while twirling her fingers around, "Sorry, today was a busy day." John got up and sat normally on his bed, facing Candlehead. "How come?" Candlehead asked politely, she also sat on his bed beside him; "Some Minotaur on fire attacked me so I killed it, then I came across a little girl who ran away and… teleported away. Doktor scolded me for the damage done to the factory where the Minotaur attacked me and I now have a sword to add to my suit. So today has been a strange day." John explained to Candlehead who listened, "At least you can sleep now. Speaking of sleep, I'm going to bed. See you tomorrow." Candlehead kissed John on the cheek and left the room; John laid back down for a few minutes and then decided to get back up to brush his teeth and put his pyjamas on before going back to bed.

* * *

The next day, John walked through Game Central Station while minding his own business; ' _Hopefully that girl is around here again. If I see her, I might want to watch my step and don't let her see me until I get close to her.'_ John thought in his head while keeping an eye out among the large crowd of characters; moments later, he could see the girl hiding behind an object from the crowd _'now's my chance.'_

John slowly followed behind the little girl, watching his every step and keeping his distance; unfortunately the girl saw him and made a run for it yet again. "Wait up!" the girl ran into the same game as yesterday and yet again ran into a dead-end; this time she tried to climb her way out but instead fell and cut her leg on a sharp object that stuck out from a pile of boxes. John heard her scream in pain and saw as she grabbed a tight hold of her injured leg; "Don't worry, I'm not here to hurt you. I want to help." He said as he slowly approached her with his hands up; the girl couldn't teleport away because of the injury, tears ran down the side of her face as the pain was too much for her. "I better get you back to Doktor, he might help out."

At Chrometech, Doktor injected the girl with nanomachines to regenerate and heal the injury; "There, all better now." Doktor said as he placed the needle into a kit; "What's your name?" John asked the little girl, she hesitated to speak. "It's alright, you can trust us." John comforted her, "I-it's Tessa, Tessa Loveday." She said in a scared tone, she spoke with a Australian accent; "Hi, Tessa, my name is John and that's Doktor. You don't have to worry about anything, we're here to help."

Tessa still had a hard time trusting them after so many years of avoiding people, she eventually opened out a little to them; "How old are you, Tessa?" Doktor questioned out of curiosity, "Eight." She replied; Doktor wrote her name and age down on a piece of paper as well as asking a few questions which most of them she's answered while the rest, she was mute.

"You look hungry." John pointed out which at the same time, Tessa's stomach began rumbling; half an hour later, food was brought to Tessa which she began eating, never has John saw someone eat so much food in short time. "I got one more question to ask you, how did you pull of that teleportation ability?" he asked her which brought confusion to her, "I didn't teleport. I went back in time." This brought shock to both John and Doktor, they never heard of anyone being capable of time traveling before. One thing they did notice was a faint purple color on her left arm; Tessa explained that using her ability too much or for long periods can cause damage to her health. After the long day at Chrometech, John brought Tessa to the castle.

* * *

The moment the two walked into the castle, Vanellope came towards them and noticed Tessa; "Who's your friend?" Vanellope asked politely, "Long story. Is it possible for Tessa here to have a room made?" John requested, "I'm sorry but there's no spare rooms left. She might have to share a room with someone." Tessa looked worried, afraid that the person she is put with might be a bully to her; "Tessa can stay with me if she wants to." Candlehead yelled from across the room. Tessa didn't know what to say at first but she wanted to laugh at Candlehead's candle; "We'll let Tess decide. I'll have fresh clothes made for her by the morning." Vanellope said before leaving the three to it. "Well, this is awkward..." John stated, Tessa laughed which made Candlehead smile, "What are you laughing at?" John had asked while smirking, "I like your hat!" Tessa said to Candlehead who also laughed alongside her.

Inside Candlehead's room, Candlehead had a sleeping bag prepared on the floor while she helped Tessa into her bed, "Why are you letting me sleep in your bed, Candlehead?" Tessa questioned Candlehead who sat on the side of the bed; Tessa laid her head down on the pillow. "I want to be generous so I am letting you sleep in my bed. Don't worry about me sleeping on the floor." Candlehead explained while she got into the sleeping bag, "Well, good night."

Tessa laid there and stared at the ceiling, she thought of what her life from this point on might be like; "Probably everything will turn out for the better." Tessa whispered to herself before going to sleep, ending the day.

* * *

 **Tessa now joins the heroes and has made friends with John and the others. As mentioned above, Tessa Loveday is owned by the user jubileena.**


	9. Ice Blast

**A cold hearted villain freezes all of the games and forces John, Candlehead and X into his own game, Ice Blast. (NOTE: This version of the Ice King isn't the one from Adventure Time; I was unaware of the character's existence during the making of this chapter.)**

* * *

Litwak was signing a few papers that were handed to him by a guy; soon he brought in a new arcade game which was titled Ice Blast. While the game characters were doing their jobs during game hours, they couldn't help but quickly glance at the new game.

As the arcade closes hours later, many of the characters left their games and waited outside the new game; "A game set in a snowy environment? Oh, I'm so excited!" Adorabeezle shouted out while her recolor sister, Nougetsia agrees with her. Most of the other characters were discussing who or what might come out of the game; X stood in the crowd and noticed John which he tried to move out of it.

"Someone's coming!" a random character yelled; a tall, pale and royal designed character approached the crowd while his tracks behind him were footprints from snow. "Attention subjects, I am Ice King and you will all bow down to me as your ruler!" he said with a deep voice; everyone began laughing hysterically until King slammed his two large hands into the ground, causing everyone except John, Candlehead and X, to become encased in ice.

"That's better." King said while standing back up; he noticed the three that were not covered in ice and had thought of an idea, "Since you three were lucky to survive that, you will suffer an even colder death." A breeze of cold wind began building up until it was strong enough to force all three off their feet and inside Ice Blast; they landed so far away from the exit into a pile of snow. "I'd like to see them survive that." King cackled and began making minions made out of ice while having them force the characters out of other games.

* * *

Inside Ice Blast, the three were stuck in a blizzard during the night; when X recovered, he took out and pointed his Tommy gun at John but struggled to aim straight due to the cold temperatures as well as the wind forcing him off-balance. X's fingers were frozen to the point where he couldn't pull the trigger; John pounced for the gun and knocked it out of his hands, and then the two started fighting. Candlehead got up and shivered, she noticed her candle was damaged and was about to cry over it until she filled herself with rage, "STOP IT!" she yelled which echoed throughout the lands. John and X looked at her as she took off her hat and hugged onto it.

"Holy shit! I didn't know this freak of yours was a loud mouth." X criticized which caused Candlehead to being crying; John punched X hard in the face which surprisingly didn't knock him out; "Don't you dare call her a freak!" John gotten offensive, X gently rubbed the side of his face, "Gettin' over protective are we?" X got back up. "We're not getting anywhere just fighting right now. You can do whatever you want but Candlehead and I are going back to teach that cool aid wannabe not to mess with us." John said as he held his hand out to Candlehead which she held onto and walked back the way came; X planned to head the opposite way. "Also once I'm done with him, I'll be taking all of your money!" X heard and forced himself into following them back.

At Game Central Station, King had already constructed a throne out of ice as well as redecorating the place in his own image; many of the characters were frozen in ice while some were kept alive in chains and were forced to construct sculptures for King. Anyone that refused to work would become frozen and then shattered into a million pieces, killing them. "At this rate, I can do whatever I want and no one will be able to stop me. Not even that old fart and his rag tag band of failures."

The three were lucky to find a cave with conveniently placed wood for them to make a camp fire. Candlehead slept next to the fire to keep warm while covering herself up with John's jacket as he stood near the entrance; X sat up against a wall and drank the bottle of wine he kept in his blazer pocket, all at the same time of smoking a cigar. John realised he couldn't summon his suit due to the snow getting into the button and messing up the circuits inside and also due to the harsh weather conditions interfering with the connection.

Once morning arrived, the three continued moving on; Candlehead was still asleep on John's shoulder as he carried her. It stopped snowing, making it easier for them to see where they're going; "No, no... too much butter mother... there's too much butter in the cake..." Candlehead mumbled to herself in her sleep until she awoken and realised what was going on. "Rise and shine sleepyhead." John jokingly called her; he put her down so she could walk the rest of the way. "You two finished? It makes me sick." X stated, "Remind me to punch you in face once we're done here."

A snowball came out of nowhere and hit X on the back on the head; X turned with an evil grin on his face when he looked at John and Candlehead who pointed at each other. Another snowball came in and hit John on the back of the head which he then turned to face Candlehead with a smirk, "It wasn't me." Then a hail of snowballs came in on them, John and Candlehead dived into a ditch to cover themselves from the snowballs. "Where's X?" John noticed X has disappeared from their sights and tried to look but every time he takes a peak to look for him, more snowballs came out of nowhere.

"Did you see the look on their faces when we hit them with the snowballs?" on kid said to the other; they were elves, one fat and the other skinny; "Yeah. Hey, where did the other one go?" the second kid asked while he searched the field, "Maybe he hid in another ditch." They didn't notice X was standing behind them; X picked them up by their hoods and carried them out to John and Candlehead.

"Please don't hurt us! It was Ed's idea!" the skinny kid said while he got down on his knees and pleaded, "Hey, you said it would be fun to throw snowballs at them!" the second kid retaliated. "Shut it or I'll end this with a bullet to both of you!" X threatened them both which made John scold X; "Ignore him. Who are you and why did you attack us with snowballs?" John demanded them t answer, "My name is Michael but you can call me Mike, that's Ed. We're sorry about throwing snowballs at you like that. Are you guys lost? You don't look like you come from these lands." The skinny one, Mike, explained and asked them out of curiosity; he seems to not be afraid of John or Candlehead but obviously is afraid of X. "We're trying to get back to Game Central Station, Ice King has all of our friends frozen in ice an-"

"Ice King?! It can't be?" Mike nervously bellowed, "This is bad, we have to inform my grandfather." He added. "Your grandfather? Would he help us deal with King?" John implored; Mike pointed to the distance, "We have a village, we can take you there if you want." John nodded, "Oh, we haven't introduced ourselves. I'm John, that's X, weird name right? And that's Candlehead."

Ed stared at Candlehead and was flattered, he would try to hit on her but John got in between the two; Candlehead gave an embarrassed face but wasn't interested in him. "Shall we get going?" John asked which sounded like he really wanted them to move on; the five left to make it to the village.

* * *

Once they've arrived, the two kids took them through to the village center where all the other elves looked at them. "Wait here, I'm going to get my grandfather." Mike said before leaving to head inside a decorative hut; while they waited, the three were constantly stared at by the other elves. Mike returned with his grandfather; "So you are needing my help?" his grandfather asked with a weak voice, though he was old, he was able to do many things any normal old person couldn't do.

"Yeah. Do you know anyone by the name of Ice King?" John asked, everyone around them gasped and looked terrified after hearing that name; "He is this game's antagonist and he is very dangerous. Why have you asked this?" still, everyone were looking terrified as they despised Ice King, like how most of the Nicelanders despise Ralph. "He has taken over Game Central Station and has all of our friends frozen in ice. We can't defeat him alone, we need your help." John informed Mike's grandfather.

"It seems that he has became so obsessed with his role as king, he has claimed himself ruler of your world. Michael did a good job finding you three. Before we can do anything, I am the elder of this village. What requests shall we offer you?" the elder treated them to whatever they wished for; though John asked for help to get back to Game Central Station and seek assistance to defeat Ice King, Candlehead and X wished for another thing. "We could use a fire to warm up as well as repairing my candle." Candlehead asked, "I could go with a glass of wine and a cigar." X asked for which made John and Candlehead stare at him with a look of disgust. "What?"

As the three sat around a fire, Candlehead's candle being replaced and X having a cigar given to him, the village elder had an army of elves ready and a large number of sleighs prepared. Once they were ready, John, Candlehead and X board one sleigh while the village elder, his grandson Mike and Ed board another while the rest of the troops used different sleighs. They took off and traveled as fast as possible to the game's exit.

* * *

At Game Central Station, some of the people that were frozen were thawed and forced to make more sculptures; among the prisoners were Vanellope and Taffyta who were whispering to each other. "I can't see why I'm stuck doing this pathetic chore for some lunatic who thinks he's the boss of me!" Taffyta bellowed when a ice minion heard her and so did the Ice King; "Taff, keep it down or they'll hear us." Vanellope whispered in fear of being noticed. "I don't care if he hears us! I had enough of making ice sculptures!" she threw down the tools and crossed her arms; the minion pulled her out of her chains which reconnected Vanellope back up to Rancis. Taffyta was brought before the Ice King who looked down upon her in disgust; "You disrespect me, young peasant! For your punishment, you will be executed!" the Ice King announced which a minion spawned a ice axe and had forced Taffyta on her knees and made her bow her head down to decapitate it. Taffyta cried and begged for mercy and just when the minion raised the axe, a gunshot was heard and the minion fell and shattered into a million pieces.

"Hey, you just need to chill!" a familiar voice was heard, it was John who had returned with the others by his side and the one who made the shot was X. The Ice King got up from his throne and spawned two ice swords; "How is it that you're still alive?! This is unacceptable, preposterous!" Ice King cried, his anger was making the ice around him melt until he spawned more minions with melee weapons. John pressed the button to summon his suit which also brought the sword along; unexpectedly his suit had a built-in speaker which played music (Celldweller – "Ghosts") under his command. The ice minions charged to attack the elves which fought back, X along with the elves; Candlehead, Mike and Ed freed the people while John took on the Ice King by himself.

Despite his size, King couldn't handle John's speed and strength until he planned to use his ice abilities to slow John down; John began slipping on the ice which gave King the chance to attack, luckily John used his thrusters to dodge and counter-attack. "I may have underestimated you, but you are no match for my second form." King said as he ditched his swords and encased himself in a block of ice for a moment which exploded and out came his ultimate form, he was twice the size of his normal self and a lot stronger; he looked almost like an ice demon. "Ha ha! That look suits you, it's a shame I can't do anything like that!" John sarcastically said before he taunted King while flying to make him follow him.

King grew wings made out of ice and gave chase which they headed back inside Ice Blast; the blizzard began picking up again and John used it to his advantage to dive into King and force him into one of the mountains. Inside the mountain was a large pit of lava and a platform which was thin; the fight continued there and King planned to freeze John to the platform and destroy it, making him fall in to the lava below. "Any last words?" King questioned as he began charging up a ice blast, "Yeah, ice try, but no cigar!" John shot King in the face with a plasma shot, blinding him and then used a HEAT missile to destroy the platform where he stood, King fell in and slowly began melting and screaming in agonising pain. "Like I said before, you just need to chill!"

Returning to the ice-free Game Central Station, John was praised by many along with Candlehead; the elder came over to them, "Thank you John and Candlehead for your efforts and hard work. If it weren't for the two of you, we wouldn't have been able to stop Ice King." The village elder gave them both a charm bracelet made out of colorful crystals; "Where's the third fellow? I'm sure I saw him here a moment ago..." the elder and the others looked around for X who has mysteriously disappeared from view. "Damn it. Anyway, thank you for the charms; the arcade's about to open." John said as he looked at the clock in the center of the area. "Well we better be heading back. Again, thank you for your hard work." The elder and his followers head back into their game as so did everyone else before the arcade opened.

* * *

 **Dumb question: how much swearing can be used in a K+ story? This is the first time a swear was used and because of that, I changed the rating to T just to be safe. So what was the best part about this chapter? Post in the reviews section and thank you for reading my stories, it really helps.**


	10. Ill-head and Rookie

**When Candlehead becomes sick, John tries his best to take care of her; meanwhile, Doktor recruits a new soldier, James Reagan.**

* * *

As he waited by the exit of Sugar Rush, John sat on a jawbreaker with his arms crossed and he shows signs of disappointment; "Where is she? She had better not slept in again." He said before getting up and thought about checking in on her.

He got to the castle within 15 minutes; John made his way up to Candlehead's room and finds her in bed with a box of tissues and her skin was white as snow. "Candlehead, are you... did you catch a cold?" he asked, she tried to answer back but she instead sneezed and covered her nose with a tissue. "Ugh... I don't feel well..." Candlehead finally spoke but her voice was a bit off; John sat on the bed and felt her head, "You're burning up. I'll get some stuff to help you with your cold; you will stay here and try to get some sleep." John said as he got up, "Then how will I participate in the race today when the arcade opens?" she asked, worried that someone will notice her absence. "Don't worry, I got something in mind." John thought of Minty Sakura wearing Candlehead's clothing and driving her kart as a cover up. "Anyway, try to get some sleep; I'll be right back with something that might help." John said as he left the room and closed the door where then Candlehead closed her eyes.

Doktor was writing down on a piece of paper while interviewing a new employee; the new guy looks to be in his twenties; the interview finished and Doktor was giving him a tour around the facility, "If you have any questions, you know where my office is." Doktor informed the new employee, "Understood, sir." Said the man, his name was James Reagan.

As thing were wrapping up, John came into the room where he saw Doktor and James; "Morning John. Have you met our new recruit, James Reagan?" Doktor asks while he pointed to James as which John replies "No but it's a pleasure." They shook hands, "So you're the one everyone is talking about, the human from the outside world?" James questioned to which John then nodded.

"I'm kinda in a hurry, Candlehead is sick and I came to get some medical supplies." John said with a bit of speed, "Do you know what you are getting and where it is?" John is still trying to get use to the layout of the facility; "Down the hallway and to the right, then up the stairs and finally to the left." Doktor nodded and John took off at a high speed for the stairs. "Well, that was… something." James remarked with a smirk.

John took the supplies he needed and headed back to Candlehead's room, Candlehead was already fast asleep, "Huh, I see back to her once she wakes up." John left the room and the medical supplies there. He was in the kitchen making himself a sandwich when Tessa came into the kitchen; "Hey, Tess, how are you doing?" John asked politely, "Can I trust you with something?" she had a worried look on her face as she was asking John.

"Sure, What's up?" rather than heating the sandwich, John placed it back down onto the plate; "Recently, I have been having nightmares. Every time I have one, a man appears… he calls me names and abuses me by hitting me, I tried to escape but he won't leave. I can't help but think I seen this man before." Tears nearly formed in her eyes but she held them back.

By now, a room has been developed for Tessa and she has been sleeping on her own; "You never mentioned this before, even the day you moved in. Why don't you try sleeping with someone you know, like Snowanna, I know how friendly she is and she could never say no." John suggested, he picked his sandwich up again; "Why can't I sleep with Candlehead like I did the last time?" Tessa pleaded, "She's sick, you don't want to be around her right now, not until she recovers." John informed her. "Thanks, John." She said before hugging in and leaving the kitchen, leaving John to finally eat his sandwich in peace.

* * *

Back at Chrometech, James was given his uniform and weapon which is a L85A1 assault rifle and a Jericho 941 handgun as a side-arm; his shift would begin as he would patrol the facility to ensure there are no enemy breaches and the other employees are doing their jobs correctly.

Approaching the weapons hangar, James crosses paths with three other guards who were messing around on shift; "What do you think you bone heads are doing? Get back to work." James instructed them which one of the three came forward, "Why don't you make us, rookie." James was beginning to become agitated with the guy's response until the guy placed his hand on James' shoulder. With fast speed, James grabbed the guy's hand and forced him into a choke hold; the other two rushed in to support their comrade, ensuring a fight between them and James.

James single-handedly fought the three, he did not take any hits unlike the three who were being knocked down; more guards alongside one of the commanders came in to stop the fighting. "That's enough! You three have disappointed me, a week in the brig and you will be doing mop duties while you're at it." Two guards took the three to their cells while another two held James and the commander look at his badge; "State your name and level, son. You must be new." The commander demanded, "James Reagan, level two, sir." James saluted, "At ease. Let me make this clear to you, son, here we don't fight our own unless they're traitors; we can only give everyone here three chances, screw them up and you're out on your ass. Do I make myself clear?"

"Crystal, sir." James said before he was let off; the commander and the two guards returned to their posts while James continued his shift.

* * *

Candlehead was awake and John was preparing her medicine; "Why am I stuck with this cold? It's annoying!" Candlehead cried, John came through the door from the bathroom and held out a spoon with the medicine on it. She took the medicine and not long after, began pulling disgusted faces, "Ugh... what is this stuff?!" she wanted to spit it back out but refused to do so, John left the bottle with the medicine in the bathroom while he placed the spoon on the side of the bed.

"You should hopefully be better within the next few days, until then, stay in bed unless you need to go. I remember my first time being like you, my mother would always give me my medicine in the morning and before I go to bed; my father would always agree with me that it tasted bad." John said which made them both laugh, "I agree with your father."

The night was approaching fast and she covered herself in the bed sheets to keep warm; "I better get going then, we'll see how you are in the morning. If you are able to, you can leave this room." John said as he was getting up, ready to approach the door. "I hope this cold goes. Goodnight, John." Candlehead said as John kisses her on the head and turns the light out afterwards, "Goodnight." John then left the room.

* * *

A few days later, Candlehead has recovered from her illness and is ready to go back to racing; "I feel so much better now, thanks to that medicine." Candlehead was fully dressed; John came out of the bathroom after collecting the medicine and the other supplies. "Well, you can thank Minty for covering your position in the race. Luckily no-one found out about your absence, not even Litwak himself knew; hopefully your return on the track should gain you an advantage to beco-" John sneezed loud and soon after, realises that he now has the cold as his nose turns bright red. Candlehead giggles and picks up the bag of medical supplies, "True, but I guess I should repay you by taking care of you before I go racing." She held his arm and pulled him out of her room and into his room to help him with his cold.

James has now made himself a reputation at Chrometech after the fight a few days ago as well as returning from his first mission; his commander and Doktor were proud of him and his comrades respected his work as a soldier. In the briefing room, the commander held a service badge and was rewarding James with it while many soldiers looked on; "You have proven your loyalty and hard work within our service and for that, I am promoting you to level three!" the commander proudly announce as he placed the badge on James, James saluted. "Thank you, sir."

The crowd applauded and soon after, they all celebrated with drinks to go around; some of the men there were discussing among themselves to follow on after James, taking advice from him and also thought to never mess with him. The three from the other day came up to apologise with James forgiving them.

* * *

 **One thing I want to get off my mind is that I couldn't think of a suitable title for this chapter, originally it was 'Ill-headed' but I didn't think much of it so I stuck with the current title.**

 **BLOOPERS:**

Chapter 6 - Missing Candlehat:

Candlehead enters the throne room while exclaiming that her candle has gone missing, John and Ralph slap their own foreheads in disappointment; "Candlehead, you do know you're wearing it on when you're suppose to take it off." Vanellope pointed out which Candlehead looked up and saw her hat is still on, she made an embarrassed look while the director sighed.

Chapter 7 - Halloween Bash:

As John threw the trophy in the air, everyone were trying to position themselves to catch it, it lands in the hands of Jubileena and Citrusella but as they caught it, they fall over and everyone laughed at them.

Chapter 8 - The Mysterious Girl:

John chased after Tessa through Game Central Station, he carefully moved through the crowd while keeping on after her; John accidentally runs the wrong direction and crashes into a few characters. Tessa stopped to turn around to laugh, "Have a nice trip, John!" most of the other characters laughed along with her and so did the director who tried to conceal it.

Chapter 9 - Ice Blast:

As the Ice King transformed into his second form, John laughed and sarcastically said "Ha ha! That look suits you, it's a shame that you can't do anyth- wait, I was suppose to say 'I' couldn't do anything like that. Damn it!" King sighed as he transformed back to his former self while John quickly ran to read the script.

Chapter 10 - Ill-head and Rookie:

James put on his uniform, he loaded the L85A1 and turned the safety on; he then proceeded to load the Jericho 941 and was just about to place it into his hostler but the gun self-fired and he nearly shot himself, "Shit! It nearly shot me!" he yelled as a few medics came running on to check to see if he was alright.


	11. Seeds of Love

**John is approached by a warrior who wants to challenge him to a duel; meanwhile, Candlehead enters a competition which she has to sing in order to win.**

* * *

John and Candlehead return from their recent game-jumping adventure in the console game Resident Evil 4 and were exhausted from all the running away from enemies; "Big advice: never go into that game ever again." John said, "Agreed." Candlehead added on.

As they were passing through Game Central Station, Candlehead notices on a notice board that a competition is being set up called 'Game Central Station Got Talent', a signup sheet was below the flyer which she signed her name and address. "You can sing?" John asked which he has never heard Candlehead sing before. "Yeah, though I am a bit rusty. I might give this one a try."

Returning to Sugar Rush, a swordsman waited inside the castle for John's arrival and he faced John the moment he walked through the main doors; "You showed up." The man said, John was confused on two levels, he didn't know the guy and he also couldn't recognise him as a friend or enemy. "Who are you?" John questioned the lone swordsman. "My name is of no importance. It has come to my intention that I must fight you for my client's satisfaction."

"Woah, woah, woah, I don't even know you and already you want me dead. What the hell is going on here?" John was even more confused than before, "Just as he predicted, you will fight me or I will kill everyone here before you!" the swordsman began threatening John which made Candlehead gulp and also worried. "Why should I fight you? What did I ever do to piss you off?" John retaliated; Candlehead covered her ears when John said "piss" as she hates that kind of language. "My client has a history with you; you will meet me on the rooftops of Simcity at accurately 9:00PM on Thursday and we will deal this conflict there. Should you miss it, I will kill everyone." The swordsman finally said before disappearing; "What the hell was that all about?!"

Candlehead hit John on the arm so hard which causes him to react to it; "Ow, what was that for?" he asked, "For swearing. Are you going to fight that guy? He seems to be taking this serious." Candlehead said with an uncomfortable tone, "If what he was saying is true, I will have to confront him. We speak this to no one, ok?"

* * *

Later on, Candlehead was in her room, she was practising a song while trying to adjust to her voice to get the right one for the song; Vanellope came up with a letter in her hand "This is for you. What are you doing?" Vanellope asked as she gave the letter to Candlehead, she opened it to find out when the competition takes place. "This is during- never mind. It's a competition I signed up for; I plan to sing Seeds of Love which is why I'm practising right now. Also, the competition is on Thursday night at nine and everyone is invited to watch me and many others sing."

"I hope you win first place! I'll inform everyone before then. What day is it today?" Vanellope asked herself quietly until she remembered that it is Tuesday. "They want us to dress neatly, but I don't have anything nice to wear." Candlehead sadly announces, Vanellope places her hand on Candlehead's shoulder, "Don't you worry, I got you covered. Come with me and I will let you choose which clothes you want to wear."

Vanellope then dragged Candlehead out of her room and into a spare room dedicated to Vanellope's clothes that she owns and she owns too many; most of the dresses were either too small or too big, too flashy or not right until Candlehead laid her eyes on one which stuck out the most. "Oh, this looks nice!" she said as she pulled out a cyan dress that fitted perfectly after trying it on; Vanellope had to leave the room to give Candlehead some privacy. Once the doors opened, Vanellope looked at her in the dress and couldn't think of what to say, "I'm speechless. You look nice in that!" Vanellope finally said. "You think so?" Candlehead smiled as Vanellope nodded.

John was passing by when he saw Candlehead wearing the dress, he commended her choice and asked if she got any news back from the host of the competition, he was shocked when he found out when it took place as it was at the same time as his duel. "That's… great. I can't wait." He tried to hide it from Vanellope which seems to work.

* * *

The next day, John was with Doktor and he told him about what happened and asks for advice; "Hmm, if he mentions about you and his client knowing each other, I might be able to guess who but it is a long shot. I would go to this fight, even if you miss out this competition with your little friend." Doktor insisted, John sighed and shook his head. "I don't want to miss out Candlehead's singing, I told her I will be there." John sadly said, "Don't worry about it, I will record her for you so you can watch it whenever you please."

At the same time, Candlehead along with Vanellope and Rancis were at the concert with the host; "So you want two musicians, one on a piano while the other using a violin? I will arrange that for you and hey will have these musical notes at the ready when you perform." The host informed Candlehead; Rancis stood on the stage and pretended that he was being admired like a celebrity until Vanellope snuck up from behind and scared him.

Candlehead eventually used the time given to practise on stage while the host, Vanellope and Rancis sat in the seats to watch; they applauded her and told her she will do fine but Candlehead thinks about John more than her performance.

* * *

The night has finally arrived and everyone were taking their seats; Candlehead peaked around the curtains to sight John who unfortunately wasn't there, she began worrying as the show starts within five minutes and she was the seventh person out of the twelve competitors. _'I can do this, I can do this. Just pretend he's there and I'll do fine.'_ She thought in her head over and over until the show started.

Meanwhile in Simcity, John waited on top on of the skyscrapers, he closed his eyes for a few minutes and then heard a thud behind him, the swordsman appeared and drew his sword. "I will make your death a quick one." He said, "Let's just get this over with, I got places to be and people to see." John summoned his sword and armor and the two begun their fight. About twenty minutes later, they've destroyed about three buildings and are jumping across many more which causing so much damage.

Candlehead was called up to the stage and still she couldn't see John anywhere but could see everyone else; she took a deep breath and the two musicians began playing.

 _"In the field so green and so free, seeds gaze up. The clouds keeps them, from the light, and the sky cries white tears of snow."_

John shoots a few plasma shots at the swordsman who swiftly dodges them and launches himself up at John to attack, which John deflects the attack and kicks the swordsman down onto a rooftop which causes a small crater to appear where he lands.

 _"The field so green and so free, seeds gaze up. The clouds keeps them, from the light, and the sky cries white tears of snow."_

Candlehead sung with so much passion, she immediately forgotten what she was doing and focused only on her singing; the swordsman threw his sword directly at John which eventually got stuck inside a brick wall, John took the opportunity to rush at the guy and strike but was disarmed which allowed for the swordsman to go for his sword. John quickly got back up to get his sword and lash back out.

 _"But still, the fragile seeds wait long for the sun to shine. Dark winter away, come spring. My young seeds once again will look up to the sky, and I know they will grow strong."_

As the violinist took over and began playing solo, Candlehead closes her eyes and thinks about John succeeding with his battle; John and the swordsman clash swords together which causes an explosion around them and everything within range was sliced, no matter how solid they were. The two put so much force into their swords, hoping one of them will break; Candlehead began singing again after the long violin solo.

 _"But still, the fragile seeds wait long for the sun to shine. Dark winter away, come spring. My young seeds once again will look up to the sky, and I know they will grow strong."_

Eventually, the swordsman lost and he had the sword knocked out of his grip; John stabs his sword through the guy's chest and pulled out as blood splattered all over. With his dying breath, the swordsman told John who his client was before John took off and left Simcity as the swordsman's body disappears.

 _My young seeds once again will look up to the sky, and I know they will grow strong."_

The song was finished and Candlehead stood there as the crowd applauded, she could eventually see John within the crowd as he smiled at her and she smirks before bowing down and leaving the stage. The remaining performers did their parts and soon after the last contestant, all twelve were brought back on stage and three names were called out in position from third to first place; Candlehead unfortunately won second place and everyone returned to backstage.

Candlehead emerged from backstage where all her friends were waiting, they all applauded her again and discussed among themselves what they enjoyed about tonight; John, Candlehead and Doktor were talking to each other away from the others.

"I'm sorry I wasn't here for the whole thing and also that you came second place." John said, though Candlehead herself was extremely happy, "No worries. In fact, I really didn't care if I won second place, I really care for expressing one of my talents to everyone." Candlehead stated before holding up her trophy and joining in with the others while John and Doktor stayed behind.

"I found out who the client was. It was Mr. X!" John told Doktor in private, Doktor guessed right, "It seems that X really wants you dead. But the only question that remains is why?" Doktor asks to which John replies "Who knows."

* * *

Earlier when John won, another man was standing on a taller building, watching as John left the game, it was Shiva. He returned to X who sat on his throne with a cigar in his mouth; "Unfortunately John won, sir." Shiva told the bad news which caused X to crush the cigar in his hand, regardless if it had burned his hand. "I hire as many professional assassins as I can find and none of them seem to be strong enough to kill that son of a bitch!" X emphasised and he slammed his fist down hard on the armrest.

"Sir, if I may, I have an idea which might work. This John guy proves to be a tough fighter and if I monitor his skills, I may be able to gain an advantage over him." Shiva declared and X sits up properly on his throne, "What do you have in mind?" he implored as Shiva gave an evil smirked.

* * *

 **X really wants John dead, he would go any limit to ensure that he dies a most painful death. Anyway, I chosen Seeds of Love from Devil May Cry because I was listening to a heavy metal remix and thought 'I can make a chapter based on this' and thus, this chapter existed. Also I didn't know what to name the swordsman, it would've been a DMC character but I decided against it in the end.**


	12. Unusual Code

**Cy-bugs, one of the most violent and dangerous kind of bugs in the arcade; what if one little Cy-bug would appear to be different from the rest?**

* * *

Vanellope, John and Candlehead were waiting at the space marine's base in Hero's Duty for Calhoun to finish unloading her equipment into her locker; Sugar Rush was the first game to finish early today and so the former three decided to wait for Calhoun.

"I'm bored, what's taking her so long?" Candlehead fiddled and wouldn't keep still as she sat down on a seat with the others, "She's nearly finished, Candlehead. Just sit tight." John instructed her as she then sat and crossed her arms in disappointment. "Can I at least go explore a bit before we leave?" she asked John who turned to face Vanellope. "Since the Cy-bugs are dead, yes but keep within range of us."

Candlehead nodded and got off her seat and went out to explore the nearby areas; though the game had a gloomy and eerie environment, Candlehead ventured onwards to which she noticed a dim, green light around a corner. She peaks to see what it is, the source of the light appears to be a Cy-bug egg which begins to hatch as Candlehead got closer; Candlehead covered her face in terror when the Cy-bug emerges but nothing happened after a while.

Calhoun had finally placed everything inside her locker except for her trusty handgun, "Alright, let's go. One day of killing hordes of Cy-bugs is making me thirsty." Calhoun said as she appeared to John and Vanellope. "Wait, Candlehead is still out there." Vanellope remembered and John called out for her; a short time later, Candlehead was in sight as she came towards them with her hands behind her back.

"Vanellope, are you fond of allowing pets in the castle?" Candlehead asked Vanellope, "I only allow the Devil Dogs in once in a while. Why did you ask?" Candlehead slowly pulled out what was behind her; it was the baby Cy-bug which Calhoun's eyes widen, "CY-BUG!" She quickly took out her handgun and aimed directly at the Cy-bug; John smacked the gun out of her hand but she still opened fire and shot the ceiling.

The Cy-bug panics and drops out of Candlehead's hands to hide behind her legs; "Watch your fire!" John shouted at Calhoun, "That Cy-bug must be destroyed before it kills us all!" the Cy-bug hissed at Calhoun; Candlehead picks up the Cy-bug and covers it from Calhoun. "Just give it a chance; it hasn't attacked any of us yet." Vanellope suggested as they left Hero's Duty.

As the four got off at Game Central Station, John, Vanellope and Calhoun were heading over to Fix-it Felix Jr. while Candlehead progressed towards Sugar Rush; Calhoun had a worrisome look on her face "I really don't trust that Cy-bug." Regardless of such, they let Candlehead go as she boarded the train-cart for Sugar Rush; "I shall name you... Spark." She said to the Cy-bug which hugged into her.

* * *

Candlehead got off the train-cart and passed through a few candy-themed fans which all kept their distance and ran for the train-cart; Candlehead would then head down to the roster race where the others racers were stationed. "Hey guys, wanna see my new pet?" Candlehead yelled at the others who turned in excitement but then turned to alarmed; "Candlehead, what are you doing with that Cy-bug?! Get rid of it quickly!" Taffyta fearfully demanded when she and the racers backed up to their karts. "It's alright guys, Spark won't harm you." They still backed up and got into their karts to quickly drive away, leaving behind a distressed Candlehead "He's friendly..."

At Chocolate Milk Falls, Candlehead sat next to the river bed while crying; Sparks ate the many chocolate rocks that were laying around; "Why won't anyone trust you? You're different from the other mean Cy-bugs." She wiped her eyes but couldn't contain the sadness. Spark brought over a candy cane stick which he dropped next to her, "You want to play fetch?" she picked up the stick and threw it quite a distance away and Spark ran after it, only to return a few seconds later with it.

"A Cy-bug that acts like a dog? You are something." She says which enlightens her a bit; continuing to play fetch, Candlehead didn't notice that someone was watching them from behind the trees. They hear a branch snap, causing Candlehead to panic and Spark to growl, "W-who's ever there, come out slowly." Candlehead demanded as the person slowly emerges, revealing to be Taffyta. "Taffyta? If you're here to criticise me, you can turn around and leave." Spark got closer to Candlehead as she crossed her arms and closed her eyes to look away; "No, I'm here to apologise."

"You are?" Candlehead slowly turned back to Taffyta, Spark just sat in place; "I'm sorry about leaving you like that, we panicked because you brought that... thing into our game. You know how dangerous they are and I don't want to see my best friend be eaten alive by one, ever." Taffyta explained as she sat down next to Candlehead. "Really? Thanks, I guess. Want to see Spark do a trick?" Candlehead then proceed to pick up one of the chocolate rocks and made Spark sit and wait patiently while she placed it on its body, five seconds later he would quickly knock it off and eat it. "That's good. We should be getting back to the castle, everyone is waiting there, and we might be able to convince them that your pet isn't what they think it is." Taffyta suggested as the two got up and ran off with Candlehead holding onto Spark.

They made it to the castle and everyone had their karts parked and saw Candlehead and Taffyta approaching them, they also saw the Cy-bug in Candlehead's hand; they were still panicking and were backing up to the castle doors. "It's alright everyone, Candlehead was telling the truth." Taffyta announced but still, the racers couldn't decide whether to trust the Cy-bug or keep their distance; one by one, the racers got a little closer to Spark to slowly pet it until they learned the truth. "It's not attacking us. What is its name, Candlehead?" Snowanna asked, "His name is Spark. I found him in that Hero's Duty game in an egg and I asked Calhoun if I could keep it."

As time passed, Spark was doing tricks to impress the others while the Core 4 and John returned from Fix-it Felix Jr. and they watched as Spark continued to perform tricks; "Are you sure this is safe?" Felix asks Calhoun; even she didn't know how to answer this. "Again, what happened?" Ralph asked John and Vanellope, "Candlehead went exploring in Hero's Duty while we waited for Calhoun, she came back with the Cy-bug in her hands and asked us if she could keep it. Anyway, I think we should take it to Doktor to see what the difference between this one and the rest is." John explained and suggested but before they decided to go over, Swizzle took out a candy bar and was about to eat it but Spark quickly jumped up and took it out of his hands and ate it; everyone, even Calhoun laughed while Swizzle frowned in disappointment.

* * *

At Doktor's lab, Calhoun and Felix had brought the Spark's coding box over which Doktor looked through to identify the difference; "Well what do we have here, I have found out the problem with this Cy-bug." Doktor took out an item within the box which revealed to be a small data chip, removing it reverts the Cy-bug to its killing habit, and Spark was placed inside a small containment chamber. "Because of this chip, the Cy-bug is given its own conscience unlike the others which have none." Doktor also took out another piece of coding which was for the Cy-bug's ability to lay eggs which was disabled.

"Hang on, place the data chip back in and release the Cy-bug." Calhoun requested as she took out a flashlight and pointed at the ground, the Cy-bug wasn't hypnotised by the light and wouldn't follow it no matter where it was pointed.

The Cy-bug jumped back into Candlehead's arms, "So Spark is different all because of his coding?" Candlehead asked, "It has a rare set of coding. Because of that, it is safe to own this Cy-bug. I will have the codes implemented into Sugar Rush's code room." Doktor picked up the code box and left the lab with the others. Candlehead is overly excited now that she has her own pet.

* * *

 **I wonder how long Candlehead will keep the Cy-bug before Calhoun eventually puts it out of its misery. Anyway, I really look forward to upload the chapters of this story as well as reading the reviews, stuff like that just helps me overcome the amount of stress I receive every day. This is S3AN06 signing off, Adios!**


	13. Deja Vu

**John is not the only one who had the glitched arcade cabinet problem, a new person is also sent into the arcade world but this time it's a girl.**

* * *

As the arcade closed, John ventured through Game Central Station; he was on an errand for Doktor to deliver postage to a company that had made a payment for it. He enters the game which the company was based in; the company's CEO had come out to pick up the postage, "Thanks kid! This stuff should help our company progress well."

"I can't believe how much this stuff is worth, especially for a small item." John stated which the CEO nodded in agreement, "Well, you better be getting along, you don't want to keep your boss waiting."

Just then, the sky began flashing in many different colors and lightning began forming in a spot in the sky where a circular hole appeared; moments later, a female falls out of it. "I got you!" John ran to hold his arms out and successfully caught her as she landed safely in his arms; "What in mod's name was that?!" the CEO wiped his eyes in surprise and stood to watch as John laid the female down gently.

"Whoever she is, it's not the first time that has happened." John mentioned; he checked her pulse to see if she was still alive before picking her up again to take her to Chrometech.

* * *

The female was the same size as John; she wore a pink skirt and shirt which also sported a cyan jacket; she had a beautiful, bright blond hair. "I just ran some tests and she appears to be a real human just like you." Doktor informed John who stood with his hand positioned under his chin, "Another victim of Litwak's arcade, salvation is at hand!" he jokingly mutters.

She woke up and panicked, jumping off the bed she was laid on and backed up away from the two; "It's alright, we're here to help." John said as he held his hands up and approached the female. John couldn't help but think about how beautiful she looked but regardless, he put the situation at hand first before thinking of anything else. "I know how terrified you are, you're not the first. You're safe."

Even then, she still backed up as far as possible, "Leave me alone!" the girl cowered in a corner and shivered until John held out his hand, she gave such a terrified look. "You can trust me." John smiled, hoping that she'll hold onto him; she slowly raised her hand to his and stood up, "Who are you? Why am I here?" she questioned.

"My name is John McCoy, that's Doktor. You were in the arcade an hour ago; did the game's cabinet shake before you arrived here?" John asked, he was guessing what the girl's answer will be; "Y-yes, how did you k-know?" neither Doktor nor John was surprised. "I too was in that situation, only my case was worse as I ended up with my shoulder and leg impaled."

The girl surveyed the room around her and saw a lot of technology, believing to be in a laboratory of some kind; "Where am I?" she asked politely, not feeling scared anymore. "You're in Sugar Rush. This is just a facility not too far away from the main land of the game; this is Chrometech. What's your name?" John had asked as Doktor ready a notebook; "It's Lucy Walton, I am sixteen years-old." She informed the two and Doktor wrote down on the notebook the information; both John and Lucy glared at him as he does this every time.

Sometime later, a few racers came in and distracted Lucy, leaving John and Doktor to themselves; "Does this remind you of something, John?" Doktor asked, "Yeah, two things in fact. Firstly, my incident with the Sugar Rush cabinet and secondly, the way how Lucy acted reminded me of Tessa we she was brought here." He pointed out; Lucy was getting along well with the racers, mostly with Minty Zaki. "I can offer her a room here, since Vanellope may not like the sound of reconstructing her castle just to add another room after Tessa." Doktor offered to John first, John couldn't agree more with the idea; "I hope it will work out for her."

The main computer lit up as a message popped up on screen; everyone crowded around the computer to watch a live feed of a monster terrorising Game Central Station. "Someone better get out there otherwise someone is going to get hurt." Doktor pointed out; "I'll take this one. Watch this." John said to Lucy as he revealed a button on his arm and once pressed, his body is completely surrounded in armor and a sword appears in his hand.

"Hey, it's just like Iron Man. Wait; you're not going out there to fight are you?" Lucy said in a worried tone; John placed his hand on her shoulder and nodded, "What if you're injured or worse?!" John couldn't help but laugh, he started up the jets under the armors footing and launched himself out of Chrometech and into Game Central Station.

* * *

Upon Arriving, most of the place was destroyed but luckily everyone managed to evacuate; "Where's this jackass?" a giant monster drops down from behind, wielding a giant hammer as a weapon and was a fat as you could imagine. John quickly dodges the surprise attack and returned the favour with a shot from his guns; the monster has small axes which were stuck to its body and every once in a while, it kept taking one out to throw at him.

John slashed at the stomach which didn't hurt the monster at all, "Dok, how the hell am I supposed to kill this thing?! It's absorbing my attacks and the HEATs aren't working!" John had hid from its view and called over to Doktor from the stealth cam that was next to him; "I suggest you kill it by destroying its heart. Do you have any missiles left? Use one and send it down the glutton's throat!"

John threw his sword like a boomerang to gain its attention and tried to jump for its head; every time he tries, the monster would throw him off; "Damn it! First I can't hurt this thing, now I can't get on its back!" John distressfully said as he was recovering from being thrown for the seventh time.

The monster prepared to smash John with its hammer but a stone was thrown at its head from behind and the monster turned to face the one responsible; Lucy stood there while holding another rock which she dropped out of fear as the monster charged for her; "Lucy!" John had used his thrusters to quickly get onto the monster's back and force a missile down its throat, but he was too late as the monster was able to swing the hammer, knocking Lucy into a wall. Out of anger, John leaped off it and unloaded everything he had left, bullets, missiles, plasma energy, everything.

The monster only died from the missile destroying the heart but its body was still being slashed at by John; he slowly stopped and focused on checking Lucy who was badly injured. "Please don't die on me." He checked her pulse and felt that she was still alive, though he was still crying; John picked up her unconscious body and left Game Central Station as many characters returned.

It took one week for Lucy to awaken from her apparent coma; she was in a hospital bed inside Chrometech, with flowers on the side and a few 'get well' cards.

The door to the room opened and in came John who was overly excited; "What happened?" Lucy asked in confusion, she tried to move but let out a cry as her body is still in pain. "You were hit by the monster's hammer and the resulting attack forced you into a wall and sent you into a coma for a week. You feeling ok?" John asked as he sat beside her and placed his hand on hers, "I feel as if I went through ten rounds against Mike Tyson with metal pipes."

They both laughed; "Well you should rest, the nanomachines that were injected into your body should heal your injuries soon." John said as he got up and looked out of the window; "What is there for me to do when I am here?" Lucy asks, "Anything you have in mind, as long as you're safe when doing something."

"Well, I better get going and let you rest." John said as he approached the door, looking back at Lucy; "I wish these injuries would heal faster, I'd love to do a lot out there with you guys. See you later." Lucy said as she closed her eyes to sleep while John said the same back as he was leaving.

* * *

 **I want to know what you guys think, are John and Lucy the perfect couple for each other? Anyway, I recently bought a Adorabeezle plush and I got it on Wednesday, that's three now as I also own Candlehead and Swizzle and I hope to get the rest soon.**


	14. The Dreadnaught Rage

**A man attempts to harness demonic power but loses his humanity in the process; John has to deal with the raging demon before the arcade opens and he relies on one demon hunter.**

* * *

The arcade had just closed and the racers returned to the castle; out of nowhere, Gloyd began running through the castle, completely naked and screaming. He ran through most of the rooms of the castle while the guards tried to catch him; Gloyd eventually made it into a room where most of the racers were and they covered their eyes in disgust except for Jubileena who gave three seconds before turning away.

"Gloyd, get some clothes on!" John demanded as he and the guards entered the room; John had covered his eyes while the guards grab a hold of him, "Place him into the Fungeons, I'll deal with him later." John commanded, the guards nodded and took Gloyd out of the room.

"You can look now." He said which the others then lowered their hands from their eyes; "What the heck was that all about?! That was gross!" Taffyta and a few others discussed among themselves, "No clue but I will get to the bottom of this immediately."

In the Fungeons, Gloyd was fully clothed and bonded in chains as he tried to escape the last time; "Why were you running around the castle naked, Gloyd?" John questioned while two guards stood within the cell, watching out for anything suspicious. "Rancis and I were daring each other to do crazy things, he dared me to expose myself in front of the others otherwise I would have to owe him money as a result for losing. I'm sorry for what I did." Gloyd informed John.

"Usually, I would keep you in here but since Vanellope isn't here to observe me, I will let you and Rancis off with a warning. There will be no mention of this, ever. Understood?" John said in an angered tone to which Gloyd nodded; John then pointed behind him "Get going, kid." Gloyd got out of his chains after the guards unlocked them; he left the room in a hurry and so did the other three.

* * *

Later, John was at Chrometech in the kitchen, getting some coffee when a unexpected surprise got him from behind, John turned to see who it was and it was Lucy; "You're up. How do you feel?" John asks, Lucy was in recovery for two weeks as most of her bones were broken and due to the Nanomachines, they were able to heal her quickly.

"I feel so much better than before! Those nano-whatever worked; I never felt so awake too!" Lucy said, she wouldn't stop giving a disturbing smile which made things awkward for the two; "So are you celebrating St. Patrick's Day? I hope you're wearing green otherwise someone's gonna pinch you." She said, she wore a green jacket unlike her usual one; John pulled down on his sleeve to reveal a green band.

"Some of the other racers are wearing something green for today." John informed her; they walked through the facility, passing many guards that were doing their shifts, including James who gave them a wave. "You should know some of the rules around here, about the arcade before you go out to see things for yourself." John said, he was very tempting to hold her hand as his arm twitched slightly to grab a hold of her.

"What are they?" she asked, she stopped him in his tracks and eventually grabbed his hand for a second until realising what she is doing, so she dropped his arm and looked awkward. "That was something... anyway, the rules are to not enter a game in-progress; for the game characters, they can't die outside their own game otherwise they won't regenerate."

Before anything could happen, Doktor stormed into the briefing room which John and Lucy followed him in to see the report files he threw onto the table, they had images of a demon; "What the hell is this?!" John looked further into the files and saw more about this demon. Doktor turned on the monitor which has a live footage of the same demon rampaging through a city game, authorities were trying to stop the demon with bullets and even explosions but nothing worked; the demon's body is made of some metallic shelling.

"My god..." Doktor turned the monitor off and turned to John who hid behind Lucy; "John, you need to go out there and deal with that Dreadnaught! I've upgraded your armor so you should be able to withstand certain blows." Doktor informed him but John stood shaking terribly, "Why me, can't we just nuke the thing?" Doktor pinched his eyes and pressed a button which assembled his armor and sword. "Fine, I'll fight the damn thing!" John said in frustration and left the base.

* * *

In the city game, the streets around John were damaged, many dead bodies and destroyed cars in sight; John tread carefully through the streets until the demon appeared in front of him, holding a corpse which it threw at John that he dodges. "Well... that's one way of making an entrance." The demon stood in silence for a moment; John quickly analysed the demon before beginning to attack with a slash.

The demon catches the sword and breaks it by crushing it; John stood to look at the sword, "Oh shit." The demon made a punch which sent John flying into a building, the armor's properties kept him from being injured. The demon was still in its place; John thought it would be a good idea to unleash a barrage of missiles, bullets and plasma shots to kill it, leaving behind a giant explosion which engulfs most of the city but upon clearing up, the demon was only recovering from a few minor injuries.

"Oh come on! Why won't you just die?!" John said as he float cautiously in the air and away from the demon which made an evil laugh and leaped out for him; John did everything he could to keep his distance from it as it attempted to grab him, it did which then causes John to fly through the city, smashing the demon on the sides of the building to knock him off.

After a long flight, the two crashed into a building which an explosion was set off; fire began covering the place, making it difficult for the two to fight and the demon made a quick escape from the area while John noticed some of its blood on the ground, he picked it up by using tissue paper but struggled to stand as pieces of glass got stuck in his left leg.

* * *

Back at Chrometech, John was about to enter the briefing room but got stopped by James who stood outside, "Wait. You ok?" James asked as he looked at John's leg, "Yeah, I can walk this off. Who's in there with Dok?" he questioned as he looked through the window. "Doktor hired a professional to deal with that… thing out there. He thought you weren't strong enough to handle the thing on your own so he wants someone with more skill to deal with it, no offence."

John and James entered the briefing room to see Doktor talking to a guy wearing a red outfit, equipped with a long claymore sword and two hand guns, Ebony and Ivory; he had white hair and looked to not be reckoned with. "John, how are you feeling?" they turned to see John as he slowly approached the table; "I'm fine. I got some blood of the demon so we can identify what that thing really is. Who's this?" John asked about the guy at the same time of handing the blood over to Dok; "This is Dante, I'm sure James told you about the idea; we thought about this and went with hiring someone who knows how to handle this sort of thing."

"Alright then, let's get this over with. Where's this demon you talk about?" Dante asked with a monotone voice, the monitor lit up to reveal the demon's whereabouts as it hid inside an abandoned building. "What's the plan of attack?" John asked the others, Dante picked up his sword Rebellion and walked towards the door, "I have a plan, charge directly at it." John sighed and followed on.

* * *

Outside the building, Doktor contacted John over the comms "John, I found something interesting; that demon goes by the name of Justin Rowland. He was human a while back but somehow became a demon." John stood outside the building while Dante entered the building without thought and searched for the demon. John ran in to find Dante, even going up to the roof where he found the demon.

"Justin, I know you can hear me. Tell me, why are you doing this?" John asked the demon which stood in silence as usual until it spoke, "Rage, I want rage! He shown me the beauty of rage and gave me this!" it had a very deep, yet metallic voice.

Dante arrived and pointed his signature handguns at the demon; the demon charged at the two as they leaped to the side; Dante continuously shot the demon which the bullets actually seem to be doing some damage to the armor. One of his guns were knocked out of his hand and he pulled out Rebellion off his back to fight by slashing at it, the demon was showing signs of struggle until he eventually grabbed Dante's sword and threw him away to focus on attacking John.

John ran to shoot as many plasma shots as possible to slow it down, he aimed for the face which seemed to work; he charged up a shot until it was too much to bare and blasted the demon in the face, breaking some of its armor helmet. Dante used Stinger to impale the demon from behind, letting out a ear-piercing scream at the same time.

It took the sword out to throw back at Dante, impaling him as well but the force of the thrown sword sent him into a wall; John landed a punch on the face which broke some pieces of the helmet off, slightly revealing a demonic face underneath.

Dante got back up from the attack and began glowing red, "Is that all you got? You can do better than that!" his voice gotten deeper until he transformed into his Devil Trigger to return to the fight but first, he removed Rebellion from his chest.

Out of nowhere came an RPG which the resulting impact forced John and the demon off the roof and down to ground level; a chopper with a few soldiers from Chrometech came in to support them.

John noticed that his leg opened up more after before, causing him to limp around the area; Dante jumped off the building to ground level to continue fighting. The demon picked up a bit of debris to throw at the chopper, it instead damaged the rotor blades and the result was that the chopper crashed with only a few soldiers injured.

Dante quickly ended the fight by slashing at the demon's arms, amputating them and allowing John to fire a few plasma shots to force it back inside the building before taking the rocket launcher from the chopper, "Hey dread-head, you're not wearing green!" John yelled as he shot the RPG to level the building.

Once the building has collapsed, John made his way in to find the demon, which appeared to be dying; John removed the helmet to see a mutated demon face with signs of human still remaining. "Justin, you mentioned a 'he', who are you talking about?" John asked as Dante aimed one of his guns at the face; "A sorcerer... he did this to me... I couldn't help... but feel so much rage... make it stop..." Justin's voice was weak; he couldn't keep his eyes open for long.

"I may know someone who is a sorcerer." Dante told John who moved out of the way and signified Dante to shoot before turning away in grief and heard the sound of death within a second.

* * *

A while after the event, John was in the infirmary to have his wounds patched up; Lucy and Candlehead were with him, asking questions about what happened; Lucy and Candlehead pinched him at the same time on the arm. "Ow, what was that for?!"

"You're not wearing anything green." Lucy told him, John lowered his sleeve to show the green band, "I'm wearing it righ- oh damn it!" he said as the band was gone, believing it must've been destroyed in the explosion earlier on.

"You think we should line everyone up outside the room and make them pinch John until we're done here?" Candlehead asked Lucy while John waved to signify 'no', Lucy nodded her head and the two left the room while John sat and waited for the punishment of a lifetime, "Well shit..."

* * *

 **As you can tell, this chapter is for St. Patrick's Day... which was yesterday. I intentionally planned to upload it then but I was busy so I could only upload it now. I would search up what the dreadnaught is from Devil May Cry if you're not familiar with it but for those who are, this dreadnaught that John and Dante fight is slightly different from the one in the fourth game.**


	15. Pumpkin Pie

**Gloyd and Jubileena have been crushing on each other for long until now when they finally get together.**

* * *

For a while now, Gloyd and Jubileena had feelings for each other that no one knew of; up to this day, things has started to become obvious to the others but the two treated it like if no one knew about it.

Most of the castle was in a wreck when a Orangguerra (Devil May Cry 2 boss) steals the trophy from the roster race and attempts to escape, which as a result causes damage to the castle; John was onto fighting it when he eventually cuts one of its arms off, preventing it from climbing the castle.

"I gave Dante one job to not let any demons escape his game, and what happens?" John said in a scolding tone, he constantly shot plasma rounds at the demon that threw debris at him; one hits him which brought him down to ground level so it could grab him and smash him into the ground like a raging kid with a toy.

"Agh! Get your filthy, stinking paws of me you damn, dirty ape!" he charged up another shot to end the madness, killing the demon which ended gruesomely. Once John recovered, he would search the castle, what was left of it, to find the other racers and citizens that hid in there.

He would find them scattered all over but safe and when he found Gloyd and Jubileena, they were holding hands; they let go once they've noticed that everyone could see them. "Is it over?" Jubileena asked in distressed, "Yeah." Gloyd said as he looked behind John; they came out and returned to their normal, daily life, pretending nothing ever happened. John raised his eyebrow and walked off as Vanellope made someone get Felix.

* * *

Later in the day, Gloyd was sitting on his own down by the river bed at Chocolate Milk Falls; John walked up to him as he admired the scenery. "Hey Gloyd, mind if I chill with you?" he asked politely, "Sure." The two sat together, John was trying to think of what to say to start up a conversation.

"Well, today was wild with that demon and all." He casually stated, Gloyd smirked and gave a little laugh "Yeah, it was. I sometimes wonder how you put up with that sort of thing."

"No kiddin'. Anyway, after I defeated that thing, I could remember finding you and Jubileena and I thought about something, are you two... you know, in love?" John as asked carefully, Gloyd didn't react well. "What kind of question is that?" becoming defensive, Gloyd stood up and backed off slightly.

"I'm sorry that I asked, it's just, I saw you two holding hands and I thought you two were in love." John pinched his eyes as he tried to calm Gloyd down who was still trying to cover it up; "There's nothing to be embarrassed about. Just look at Swizzle and Sticky, they're happy together so I don't see how you and Jubileena shouldn't be."

Gloyd eventually calmed down to him and told him the truth, they were dating for some time now but they didn't want anyone to know. "-and you're the first person to know. Can you keep it a secret? Please, we don't want anyone to know yet." Gloyd got onto his knees and begged.

"Ok, consider it kept private, and sorry about surprising you with this." John said as he got up and left; John later found Jubileena with her sister Citrusella, wondering through the halls of the castle.

"Hey Jubileena, can I speak with you in private?" John asks, Jubileena nods and Citrusella continues on her way; "What do you want to talk about?" John scratched the back of his head and finally said "Do you and Gloyd have a crush on each other?" Jubileena's face lit up red in embarrassment and she began smirking. "I take that as a yes. I talked to Gloyd and he confirmed it; I was just asking you as well to know."

"How do you know this?" Jubileena questioned while still glowing bright red, "I saw you guys holding hands earlier in the day." He informed her; the bright red color on her skin fainted and she pulled a straight face. "Can you keep this a secret? We want to tell everyone soon once we're ready." She asks to which John nodded his head. Jubileena continued onwards after Citrusella while John disappeared from the hallway to head down stairs.

* * *

A week has passed and the racers have just finished a practise race when Gloyd got out of his kart and left the area; Jubileena followed on behind, skipping along after him. Taffyta watched them leave while John walked up to her and shrugged his shoulders, pretending to be confused.

Over a cliff, the two sat together where they can see most of the land ahead; "It's beautiful." Jubileena said as she sat down to admire the view; Gloyd nodded his head in agreement and sat down besides her, holding her hand. Though he's happy with her opinion, he seemed upset; "What's wrong, Gloyd?"

"It's just... it's just that we've been going on like this for months now, we should really consider telling everybody." Gloyd insisted, "We should. John found out a week ago; it could be soon when everyone else finds out."

Footsteps were heard behind them and they were getting louder and louder as it came close; the trees fell down as if a bulldozer pushed through them. It came in their sight as another Orangguerra appeared; the difference with this one unlike the previous is that the bottom-right eye is red as the previous had a blue eye. The two were terrified as it approached them; Jubileena hid behind Gloyd as they backed up, but they didn't want to go too far otherwise they'll fall off the cliff.

The demon nabbed Jubileena and smacked Gloyd into a tree and fell in pain; "GLOYD!" Jubileena cried as she was taken away by the demon with Gloyd passing out for five minutes. He got back up and tried to run for the others, limping in pain at the same time.

Once the demon has gotten close to the village, Chrometech was alerted of its presence and John was sent out to deal with it. He noticed Jubileena in its hands as it attempted to climb Diet Cola Mountain; Gloyd came up behind John and tapped him to get his attention. "Gloyd, are you ok?" John asked, he only had his sword with him but after asking, he summoned his suit over to cover his body.

"I'm fine. It has Jubileena; please save her!" John followed after the demon as it climbed to the top; it left Jubileena up there as it came back down to get revenge for John killing its brother. John lured it away from the mountain and fought it somewhere else; Gloyd unexpectedly climbs up behind the mountain to the top where he finds Jubileena panicking. "Jubileena, are you alright?" Gloyd asked as he held his stomach in pain; "I'm fine. You're hurt!" Jubileena held onto him as they looked down at the fight.

The demon put up more of a fight than its brother as it kept pushing forward despite being shot a lot with plasma shots; every time John shot a missile at the thing, it deflected the missile with its hands. "Damn it, I only got three shots left." John draws his sword and attempted to attack it but with the use of the branches on the trees, it kept a distance away from him.

Gloyd thought it would be a good idea to climb back down the way he came, he couldn't as his injuries prevented him from crouching down; "We're going to have to jump." Gloyd suggested, "Are you insane?! I'm not jumping from this height, we will die!"

John chased after the demon as it climbed up the mountain; it appeared behind the two and without second thought, they leaped off the top and fell down with the demon tailing them from behind. John activated the thrusters and tried to catch them while at the same time; he shot the last three missiles at the demon which all hit.

He successfully caught the two and they landed safely; the demon's arms got blown off by the explosion while the third missile hit it directly in the chest, killing it. They watched as the demon fell and hit the ground hard enough to shake the environment around them; at the same time, many racers came to gather around them.

"Is it truly over, this time?" Vanellope asked, "Yes, I hope so. I'm going to pay Dante a visit after this." John said. Gloyd and Jubileena gained everyone's attention and took the time to announce their secret; Gloyd told them all first them so did Jubileena as they held hands.

Everyone thought it was adorable for the two as they kissed; "Hold up, hold up... let me ask you one question, Gloyd: how the hell in my father's name did you get up onto of the mountain?"John pinched his eyes in frustration and soon afterwards, everyone fell in silence as they looked directly at Gloyd.

"I... climbed up the back." Gloyd pointed to the back; John made the 'flip table' action and walked off with Candlehead following after him. Gloyd and Jubileena wandered off together, knowing that everyone now knows their secret and are happy with it.

* * *

 **That's another two racers paired up, now we need Rancis to do the same. Why I use Devil May Cry a lot is something I just can't help, but I promise the next chapter will have no mention of it.**

 **BLOOPERS:**

Chapter 11 – Seeds of Love:

After Candlehead had put the dress on, she opened the doors and revealed herself to Vanellope, "I'm speechless. You look nice in that!" Vanellope said, "You think soo- woah!" Candlehead accidentally stood on the dress and fell over onto Vanellope. Some of the stage-hands had to run up to help them.

Chapter 12 – Unusual Code:

Candlehead came back to the others and revealed a Cy-bug from behind her back, John got a bit closer to have a look but it jumped out of Candlehead's hands and onto John's face as he ran throughout the set screaming "Getitoffgetitoffgetitoffgetitoffgetitoff!" everyone stood laughing.

Chapter 13 – Déjà vu:

When summoning the armor suit, one of the pieces of the suit accidentally hits John's torso and crotch too hard, causing him to fall in pain while letting out a high-pitched cry.

Chapter 14 – The Dreadnaught Rage:

John aimed the RPG at the building the demon was positioned in; "Hey dread-head, you're not wearing green!" John yelled as he shot the missile… the wrong way. Instead of going to the building the demon was in, it went behind John and nearly hit the camera crew in the distance; "Well… that didn't go as well as I hoped…"

Chapter 15 – Pumpkin Pie:

As John attempted to get up after talking to Gloyd, he lost his balance and fell into the river; he came out completely wet and covered in milk. "Oh man, this is the next official superhero, Milk Man..." he said as a few crew men came out with towels.


	16. Christmas Spirit

**It's Christmas Eve and already things are out of control as Santa has been kidnapped by Ice King and Eggman who have teamed up to ruin Christmas for all.**

* * *

It's Christmas Eve in the Game Central Station and many characters are going late shopping for the 'last resort' presents, rare and expensive presents to those who could afford them, like Vanellope who has gone shopping with Ralph.

The two came out of a game; Ralph was tasked to carry all of the presents for Vanellope, "Jeez Vanellope, think you could help out here?" he struggled to carry all of the presents at once. Vanellope glitched in front of him "I wish I could Stinkbrain, but these present are too big for me. That's why I brought you along."

Regardless, he just manages to carry them into Sugar Rush up to the castle; John waited outside and notices them trying to enter the castle. "John, you saw nothing, you hear?" Ralph said, John raised an eyebrow. "If you're referring to the presents, which I can't see any, that's not important to me right now. I'm waiting for the racers to meet me here so if I were you, I'd get inside now."

The two rushed in and five minutes later, the racers arrived and their plan is to go to Tappers to celebrate; "Tomorrow after the dinner, everyone can try my Christmas theme cookies I've made." Crumbelina said happily, "Are they going to be delicious?" Snowanna asked, "You will find out. I included my secret ingredient which gives them the extra taste."

"-and I sworn he believed that the orphanage janitor was Santa when he was not." John said which caused the others to laugh; one elf that sat opposite to everyone was depressed, constantly chanting "Santa is missing" over and over.

"Should we see if he's alright?" Candlehead asked John who shook his head and said "He's just drunk." They later left Tappers as it was closing time and outside was more elves that huddled up and left together, confusing the others.

There was only six hours until midnight and the racers spent the hours together celebrating while John met up with Vanellope to finish of business on documents for Chrometech. By three hours left, everyone were fast asleep; over in the snowy mountains of Ice Blast, the Ice King and Dr. Eggman were planning something but at the same time, a cell made out of ice houses the one and only Santa from the same game as Ice Blast.

"Are you sure this plan will work?" the king said; he has made a slight change in appearance as he has red light emitting from inside him and he has gotten a bit bulkier; "Let's just go over the plans one more time so neither one of us forgets. I will disguise myself as Santa and I will deliver the 'presents' to as many houses as I can, you will keep him here until I finish. The presents will be the reason for why Christmas is ruined and when that nuisance John makes his move, we'll attack him when he is at least expecting it." Eggman slowly explained.

"I'm sick of that worthless kid getting in our way; tonight will be the night when everyone will realise that he isn't the hero they expect him to be." King said as he crushed an ice skull and his eyes lit up red.

* * *

Back in Sugar Rush, Candlehead slept peacefully in her bed, holding onto her plush of herself when she heard John whispering to her, "John? What are you doing up this late?" Candlehead looked at the door where John peaked in and he put his finger over his mouth to indicate to stay quiet. "Get ready and meet me outside, quickly." He left, leaving Candlehead to get out of bed and to put her clothes on as well as her candlehat.

"You better have a good reason for dragging me out of bed this late John." She quietly said to herself as she left the room and walked across the hallway; a Oreo guard was positioned at the end of the hallway, but he was asleep. Candlehead snuck by carefully while trying not to make any noise; she stood on a loose floorboard which made a noise that awoken the guard but Candlehead was quick enough to get downstairs and out of the castle while the guard fell back to sleep.

Outside the castle, John was waiting patiently for Candlehead who came out, rubbing her eyes; "You better tell me why you brought me out here at this time or I will hit you in the face." Candlehead said. "Remember back at Tappers when we saw that elf guy and his friends outside and they were upset? I can't help but think something's up."

"So what are you going to do about it and why am I here?" Candlehead asked, "I'm going to find out what's going on and you can help me. It's been a few weeks since we did something together so I won't let this opportunity go to waste."

They left Sugar Rush and arrived in Game Central Station which is empty; "We only got two hours until midnight; if we can do this before then, we can get back and sleep." John said after yawning.

They explored a bit until they heard screaming coming from one of the game's entrance, a elf running out while being chased by Egg Pawns; John dealt with them as he took one of their swords and used it to cut them into confetti. "Are you ok, kid?" John asked the elf that tried to catch his breath.

"I'm fine, thank you." The elf did a bow which confused both John and Candlehead; "What are you doing out here?" Candlehead questioned the elf who looked scared and replied "I was looking for someone, I'd say his name but you won't believe me."

"I've seen demons, giant robots and anthropomorphic animals; I'm sure this next thing I will believe." John said which enlightened the elf; "I'm looking for Santa Claus." John walked away "He doesn't exist; let's go, Candlehead." Candlehead quickly ran in front of John and stopped him, "That's it? I don't care if you believe in Santa or not, I'm going to help look for him and there's nothing you can do to stop me."

John screamed in anger and turned to them, "Fine, I'll help you, and for your information, I can stop you by picking you up and leave. What's your name, kid?" the elf stood by Candlehead as he feared John; "My name is Jack Frost, I'm Santa's little helper."

"Well Jack, what can you remember?" John asked the elf who stood with his eyes closed; "All I can remember is going into the workshop and finding a group of robots and a fat guy with a moustache kidnapping Santa." Jack explained. Candlehead picked up a piece of a robot which had Eggman's face on; "At least we know our suspect; let's start with him."

* * *

At Eggman's base, there was no one in sight, not one robot around; the three made it into the center of the base where a computer is left on and John searches through everything for clues. "I can't find anything here; he erased everything before he left to go somewhere." A faint buzzing sound was heard, and then a ball of fire was shot into the room which nearly killed Candlehead but John saved her.

Metal Sonic flew into the room and pinned John up against the wall by holding onto his throat; John quickly picked up a metal rod and stabbed it into the hand that's holding him up. "Metal, what the hell are you and Eggman up to?!" instead, Metal charged at him and the two fought while Candlehead and Jack hid behind cover.

John threw punches at Metal's face, breaking pieces of the armor of until Metal threw a punch back which was hard enough to cause John to spit blood; John was failing to defend himself as he was getting beaten up badly; Metal grabbed a hammer and was about to slam it upon John until he positioned his arms in a X formation when a faint red shield formed and forced the attack back, temporarily disabling Metal long enough for Candlehead to drive a metal rod through the robot's neck.

"What was that?" Candlehead asked in confusion, "I don't know, but whatever it was, it saved my life." John got up and picked up Metal's decapitated head to bring it over to the computer where he used the USB plug from the computer and plugged it into the back of Metal's head.

"All right, I believe I now know who has Santa and where they're keeping him." John stated as he, Candlehead and Jack watched as Ice King and Eggman locked Santa up in an ice cell.

They traced the location and made their way to the same mountain as the two villains are in; the three stood in a cave at the bottom; "So how are we going to do this?" Jack asked, "You two find another way in, I'll distract them which will give you two time to rescue Santa." John suggested and the two left to go around the mountain.

Inside, John confronted the Ice King who sat on his throne made of ice; "You showed up. I've been waiting for you." King said as he stood up and constructed a sword; John quickly looked behind King to see Candlehead and Jack slowly approach the cell.

Candlehead looked into the cell and saw Santa approach the door; "Sir, we're here to get you out." Jack whispered to Santa as he picked the lock quietly; John distracted King to give the others time to escape. "I knew you were real, I always believed it." Candlehead happily whispered as the cell door opened and Santa emerged.

"We will deal with this later; let's get out of here before-" as they were sneaking out, a wall of ice prevented them from escaping and they looked to see King with his sword out and pointing at them. "To think I wouldn't notice would be foolish of you. Strange... where's that old fart of a friend?" King said.

"He's not our friend. Let us go and surrender yourself if you don't want another embarrassing beating like the last time." John held his arm out to the side; "You're in my abode now; you think coming in here with some balls and without a weapon and threatening me is a good idea? Think again."

The throne exploded with shards of ice penetrating the walls and barely missing the others; King lunged at John with his sword but only to be deflected when John's sword arrived on time. "You're right about one thing, I do have balls, but I think you don't have the strength to win this fight."

As the two slashed swords, Candlehead and the two attempts to find a way out; King grew tired of fighting and cheated by freezing John's left arm to a wall and breaking his sword in the progress. "This time, any last words?" King said as he rushed to slash at John who covered with his free arm; Santa quickly used his magic to shield John and stunning King before causing a large block of ice to fall and knock King unconscious.

"Thanks." John said as he broke out of the ice; loud sounds could be heard from another area in the mountain as Eggman started up the sleigh to take off; John ran and made a leap for the sack on the back of the sleigh as it took off.

Inside the sack were a lot of badniks disguised as presents that tried to stop John but he climbed out of the sack and pounced onto Eggman and the two fought over the control of the sleigh. "Get off me!" Eggman yelled. Eventually, John was able to get it from Ice Blast into Sugar Rush where he crashed the sleigh into the Candy Cane Forest; Eggman passed out from the crash while John's head was bleeding.

* * *

The others caught up and Eggman and Ice King were teleported into the cells in Chrometech; Santa fixed the sleigh up and with his magic, he healed John's injury while Jack got into the sleigh. "I must thank both of you for freeing me. Your courage and strengths are what keeps the two of you alive and strong, nothing will bring you down."

John shook his hand while Candlehead held her skirt and bowed; "To each of you I reward you with a wish of your choosing."

John came forward first, "I wish for... everyone tomorrow to have the best Christmas they all will ever have." He backed up to allow Candlehead to approach forward; "Wise wish indeed, but kind of you to think for others."

"I wish for our friendship to never end, no matter what happens." She asked for which made John smile. "I can guarantee that it's not magic that will maintain your friendship, it's only what your heart's desire."

Santa got into his sleigh and turned all of the badniks into real presents; the bid them farewell as the sleigh lift off the ground and made for the skies, leaving a trail of magic dust behind before leaving Sugar Rush.

The two quickly ran back inside as John looked at the clock in the throne room as it was midnight; they got back into their beds to sleep.

When morning arrived, some of the racers got out of bed and ran down the hallway, awaking the others in the process; they made it downstairs into the throne room where a tall Christmas tree was position on one end of the room with over 100 presents underneath. The racers began opening their presents while John and Vanellope watched them; Candlehead found a large present with John's name on and it was from Santa, she handed it over to him.

John opened it to find that it was a new sword; John gave it a few swings, "No way, it's a HF, vibranium sword. The material is rare and requires a lot of concentration to use properly." John placed the sword at the side and opened the other presents he had as so did Vanellope.

As time passes on, people were arriving at the door such as Ralph, Felix and Calhoun along with the space marines from Hero's Duty and the Nicelanders; soon did Doktor, James, Tessa and Lucy arrive as well and while the Christmas dinner was being prepared, John stood out a balcony, looking out to the land of Sugar Rush when Candlehead came up from behind and surprised him.

"Should we tell everyone about what happened last night?" Candlehead asked as she sat up on the hand rail but held on so she doesn't fall off; "Na, no one will believe us. At least you got your chance to see him... and to prove me that I was wrong..." the two were laughing until Candlehead kissed him on the check. "That's for admitting the truth."

"Dinner's ready!" everyone heard from the kitchen as they then rushed to find their seats at the table, possibly the longest table in the game to fit everyone on. They end the day with a celebration party; John noticed a extra present from Santa with two rings inside that had two gems, one within each and they were coloured blue and pink to match John and Candlehead. They had 'Friendship Forever' engraved within the rings and they put them on before joining everyone else.

* * *

 **Wow, this was the longest chapter I've made so far; I can tell another chapter will take its place. So more of Ice Blast has been revealed and this has expanded on John and Candlehead's friendship.**


	17. Parental Guidance

**The racers' parents arrive to see their children, one of the parents, Flambé, hate John and believe he is corrupting her daughter, Candlehead.**

* * *

One morning in Sugar Rush, all of the racers woke up early and got ready to tidy each of their rooms up before they all stood outside and waited patiently; John and Vanellope came out to see the racers, John stood confused.

"What's going on, Vanellope?" John asked, some of the racers looked nervous, straightening out their clothes and talking among themselves. "No one told you? During the creation Sugar Rush, the creators made parents for the racers but they decided to scrap them at last minute. They are complete, models and coding but they were never removed; King Candy saw them as outsiders and ruled out that they would be forced to live far away and only allowed to visit once every five years. It's really sad when you think about it."

Moments later, a candy themed bus drove up the pathway and parked in front of everyone; the doors opened and out came all of the parents which they came over to their children. The recolors parents were their original racer's parents; Cheri is the mother of Jubileena and Citrusella for an example.

Sour Bill came out and announced to Vanellope that the room is ready; Vanellope guided everyone into a large room with a lot of tables set out for each family to sit at and allowed them to catch up with the latest news.

John and Vanellope stood at one end of the room and observed as the families cheerfully communicated; John however, noticed Candlehead sitting alone on one table, depressed. "What's wrong with Candlehead?" John asked, Vanellope tried to find Candlehead among all of the tables and could see her.

"Flambé must be late. Before you meet her, you must be warned about their past; Flambé's husband was murdered outside of Sugar Rush and ever since, Flambé is the only family Candlehead has."

John then decided to go over and sit with Candlehead; she slightly smiled as he sat down. "You alright, cupcake?" John asked the depressed girl, "Kind of. I hope momma didn't forget to get on the bus with the others." Candlehead laid her arms on the table and she rested her head on them while she waited, John gave her a soft pat on the back.

The doors opened and in came a woman wearing a green dress with mint chocolate chip on it, she also wore a candlehat on her head and she came rushing over to the table and the two were chatting away, they didn't stop to catch their breath. "I could relate you to someone I know, Kate... something." John said to Candlehead which then Flambé stopped talking to look at John.

"Candlehead, who's this?" Flambé asked with a cautious look on her face; "Mom, this is John; he's a friend of mine." Flambé continued to give John a strange look which caused sweat to run down the side of John's forehead.

"I see... tell me, John, what do you do for a living?" she questioned the boy, he instantly went from nervous to normal, "I play video games, read books and work as a soldier when I'm on duty."

Still, Flambé didn't look impressed which made John even more nervous; the next half hour was a barrage of questions about his personality which slowly made him lose his mind. This was until Vanellope announced that the session was over and Sour Bill guided the parents to their rooms while John and the racers headed outside to wait.

"Why is your mother asking me so many questions?!" John yelled which a smirking Candlehead shook her shoulders, "I don't know... maybe she just wants to know you better." John slapped his hand on his face hard, a red mark remained until it faded away; "She may as well take a 'how well do you know John' personality quiz." Candlehead began chuckling.

* * *

After a while, Sour Bill came out to bring the racers in; a large table was set out that fitted all the racers and their parents as well as John and Vanellope on; everyone began talking during the wait for dinner and during it.

"-we taught our boy how to master the skill of pranks. So if he ever does anything absurd, you'll know he gets that from us." Gloyd's father said which made all of the others laugh; "He pulled off the ultimate joke to run around the castle naked last time." Jubileena said which made Gloyd cheeks grow red and Vanellope nearly choked on her drink. Though John said last time not to mention it, now was a good time as Vanellope slightly chuckled.

"What about you John? What's your story?" one of the parents asked John who's eyes widen when everyone looked at him; "Me? Well, the thing is, I'm not from the arcade." The parents gasped until John continued on.

"I used to live with my parents; we were happy together as one family until that day... my parents were planning to go on holiday to Hawaii together and I was supposed to stay behind while a babysitter took care of me. I came back from school one day when the babysitter told me the bad news: the plane my parents boarded had crashed during flight and everyone, including my parents, died. I lived in an orphanage for three years where the owners of the place thought that hitting us would knock some sense into us; I was lucky for this game's cabinet to glitch out and bring me here, even if it meant losing too much blood after a fall."

The room fell in silence; everyone looked at the saddened boy until one of the parents spoke up, "Well you're safe with all of us." They all continued eating while discussing.

* * *

It was time when the racers had to go to sleep and while all of the other parents are putting their children to bed, John was tasked with putting Candlehead in bed; "Where's mom?" Candlehead asked while rubbing her eyes and yawning at the same time. "She wanted me to put you into bed as she is busy with something else. Good night, Candlehead." John left the room quietly as she began falling asleep.

Upon closing the bedroom door and turning around, Flambé was standing behind John, giving him a terrible look but at the same time of scaring him, "You scared me!" John said as he placed his hand on his chest, next to where his heart is.

"That was a touching story during dinner, but you don't persuade me. I don't trust you near my daughter." Flambé said to him; "We have been friends for nearly two years now, Candlehead trusts me with everything." John cautiously said which angered Flambé.

"Well I don't trust you. You can stay away from my daughter." She said; "Wait, what can I do for you to trust me?" they moved away from the bedroom door to ensure Candlehead couldn't hear them.

It took Flambé a minute to decide but when she did, she told him instantly, "You do what I tell you to do and you do not argue; whatever tasks I give you, I want to see them fulfilled otherwise you will lose your chance. Do I make myself clear?" John nodded and was directed to the door.

"You will begin tomorrow morning and I will give you a week to prove to me that you can be trusted." John left after Flambé closed the door; he went to his room to end the day, but sighing in the process.

* * *

In a hidden based, a group of scientists were constructing a suit similar to the one John wears but it is much bulkier and made for an adult size person; the lead scientist, Dr. Dahm, came to another man in the same room who was watching from a distance. The man was X, he had his old "friend" to make him a suit to battle against John while making weapons and adjustments for the suit to deflect any and all of John's attacks from this point on.

Shiva was also in the room; every battle John took part in, Shiva was there to watch and analyse every move and attack.

"How is my suit coming, doc?" X questioned, "Everything is up to speed, sir. We may need to run some tests to ensure that no error will appear." Dahm sounded as if he feared X, his voice kept lowering every second he talks to X.

"Fine, whatever it takes to kill that little shit. Commence the training if you must." X said as he approached the suit; he removed the cigar from his mouth and flicked it away before putting the suit on. The lab there had a VR room similar to Chrometech's VR but with major differences.

X began his VR which started off with him against a large group of police officers, all with weapons of some kind and after quickly analysing each officer and their weapons, X was able to brutally take them down to end the VR. "E-excellent, sir. Very g-good." Dahm commended out of fear; Shiva shook his head in disappointment, "You really think you could take out John with those skills of yours? You lack planning, you won't survive in a fight for a minute like that."

"You dare question my skills?!" X pointed a gun towards Shiva who smashed through the window at a fast speed to disarm X and pin him to the ground; "At this rate, you won't last even a second."

"So what, you're going to teach me your fancy skills?" X tried to get up but failed as Shiva had him pinned down with only his foot; "I'm going to teach you the art of fighting. You will only listen to me while we do this; I know what John's capable of, you don't." Shiva said as he removed his foot and helped X up.

"We will start now; you do everything I say and you don't screw up otherwise you're on your own." X grinned while preparing himself for the worst training of his life.

* * *

The next day, John was sleeping peacefully in his bed, hugging into his pillow and muttering Lucy's name every five minutes until a trumpet was played close up to his ear, causing him to fall out of bed while screaming.

"What the hell?! Are you trying to make me go deaf or something?!" John rubbed his ear when he looked at Flambé who put the trumpet down on his bed and handed him a schedule board with different jobs for today. "You either had that or a bucket of cold water with ice cubes. Anyway, you will complete these tasks for today. You will start by making Candlehead some breakfast."

"I do that most of the time." John said as he got up, "Can I at least get ready first?" he asked; "You have ten minutes. I will wake up Candlehead, using this." She pointed to the bucket of water and was about to walk out with it.

"Wait, that won't be necessary." John quickly grabbed the bucket; "I was testing to see if you were fully aware. I would never do that to my lovely cupcake."

John closed his bedroom door and got ready; he went to the kitchen and found Candlehead sitting at the table. "Morning Candlehead, can I make you anything?" John asked while opening the fridge; "I would like a sandwich please."

John made the sandwich that Candlehead asked for and served it to her; Flambé called out for John outside the kitchen which he went to see what she wanted him for. "The first task was obviously easy for you, the rest will tire you. The next thing I want you to do is help Cheri with unpacking her stuff."

John immediately headed for Cheri's room to help her; unlike Flambé, John got on well with Cheri; he then was then booked with many different tasks; doing the dishes, tidying the castle, collecting laundry, etc. it tired him out by the end of the day; he eventually returned to his room to relax and play some games.

The next day was the same as before, the only difference being he had the bucket of water thrown onto him; one of the tasks John had to do was help Flambé and Candlehead with their shopping in Game Central Station.

Flambé went on ahead while Candlehead fell back to see John; "I overheard what mommy is doing to you, how long will it last?" Candlehead asked the tired boy. "She said I only have one week, I wish it was one day."

In the distance, an explosion was made when an armored abomination leaped out and appeared in front of John and took of the helmet, revealing to be X; "Hey, kid, guess who's back to kick your ass!"

"Candlehead, get your mother and get out of here!" John demanded while holding out his arm to summon everything but was unfortunately too late when X picked up a metal pipe and used it to hit John hard in the face, knocking him out. X then grabbed as many people as he can, including Flambé and Candlehead, and disappeared with them.

* * *

 _"Is he ok?/ get Chrometech on the phone…/ check their pulses…"_

John slowly opened his eyes to see a group of people over him, checking to see if he was alive; once he regained conscious, he looked around him at the destruction caused. There were many injured and few dead; "Where did he go? Where did he take them?" John demanded to know as he asked the people around him.

They pointed to a game; John got up and approached the game. "But your head, you need medical attention." One of the characters said, John's head was pouring with blood but he continued on; he took out a phone and made a call, "Dok, I need the suit and sword… and a shot of nanos."

X had everyone tied up and at the same time, he barricaded himself in a construction site; Candlehead was trying to break out of her ropes but had to watch out in case X sees her.

John appeared but was hidden from everyone sight, he got in close but told everyone to stay quiet while he attempted to free them all; a gunshot was heard when John turned to see X aiming at him. "Took your time. I didn't want to kill you like that, I wanted to test you in battle as you see, I prefer to watch my enemies die right before me after I tire them from a good fight. My last victim took a stand but he begged for mercy in the end."

John boosted to attack with his sword and a battle ensured between the two; with the given time, Candlehead resumed to break out which she eventually did; she then freed everyone else and they made a run for the exit.

"How did you do that, Candlehead?" Flambé asked, "John taught me; he gave me lessons." Candlehead pulled her by the arm and they were leaving the site; "John taught you…"

Most of the construction site was destroyed thanks to John and X; John kept jumping around the place while X followed after him, shooting bullets and missiles to try and kill him, "C'mon kid, show me what you're made of!" John went in reverse and made a slashing attack to which X dodged and punched John to the ground; John attempted to recover but was smashed down again, parts of his armor came off.

John's sword was a few feet away from him and X picks it up; "You see, men can fight and survive their own wars; not many survive, but they all believe a saying: _'success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of_ _enthusiasm'_ I don't believe it." X was about to stab John with his own sword, that is until a brick was thrown at him.

Candlehead stood with another brick in hand when X turned to face her; "Well, what do we have here?" X shot a bullet which John, given only two seconds to react, quickly boosted to take the bullet to the right side of his chest, away from his heart.

Despite the pain, John got back up and shot a HEAT missile at X to knock the sword out of his hand, grabbing it and throwing it like a boomerang at a platform that had a lot of flammable barrels that fell onto X and John shot one of them, causing a massive explosion; John had to quickly fly out with Candlehead in his arms as the site came crumbling down in flames.

Standing out at the game's exit, John watched as X abandoned his suit and escaped, though he has suffered many burns to his body. Candlehead held John's hand as they turned around and left the game together.

* * *

Later that night, John appeared to have his gunshot wound treated; he was yet again tasked with putting Candlehead to bed. "I'm sorry you got hurt, it's my fault." Candlehead said with sorrow, "It's not your fault. I would have been a dead man if you didn't show up on time. I can manage a bullet wound just fine."

Candlehead yawned so loud which made John laugh, "I'm sure your mother will go easy on me with the remaining tasks from now on." John said, "Good night, Candlehead." Candlehead quickly got up to hug John before laying back down to sleep; John slowly got up and walked out of the room and closed the door behind him.

Upon turning around, Flambé gave John another scare as she stood behind him, this time she wasn't angry at him.

"I never got the chance to say thank you for what you did today, you sacrificed yourself to protect my daughter as well as teaching her how to help herself and because of that, you've earned my trust." Flambé told him while handing him a drink of wine.

Despite being under-age, John took the drink and he followed her where she then had shown him a photo of her husband; "You should know the reason for my odd reactions the other day; I'm sure Vanellope has told you… about my husband's death."

John nodded, "He was murdered and for that, I am truly sorry for your loss, I can relate to how you feel right now." He said. "When I was told by the Surge Protector what happened that night, he said the one who was responsible, you looked just like him. I could only see the difference because he was described with a tattoo under his left eye." The more Flambé had explained to John, the more obvious it was that she would cry at any moment.

"He now wonders the station, no one was ever able to find him. I only wished for justice to be served, and the only way for that to be done is by executing him. I only ask for you to do one last task for me: please find him and avenge my husband." John too filled up with tears but after being asked, he gladly accepted without a second thought.

* * *

A week has passed and it was one night when the Game Central Station was empty except for one person; the murderer walked through at a quick pace when he heard someone behind him. "Hey, what are you doing out this late?"

The guy turned to face the stranger who was John; "I'm just havin' a late night stroll. Why does it matter to you?" the man said. The air filled with silence for a moment until John spoke up, "I know what you did many years ago. You murdered an innocent man in cold blood and now you must pay for your mistake."

The guy stood there, nervous of what may happen next; John drew his sword from behind and slowly approached the guy who made a run for a game. He thought he was safe when he ran down an alley way and out of John's sight.

He turned to see if he was still being followed but there was nothing behind him; he continued walking down until he walked into the sword that pointed out to his heart and John revealed his face from the shadows, "Consider this an invitation to Death's presence." The man died instantly after the sword was removed and John quickly removed the body from the area.

He disposed of the body by chopping it up into pieces and dumping it all into the ocean in the same game before returning back to Sugar Rush to give Flambé the news.

* * *

 **Why did this story had to end dark? Anyway, I wanted to bring the parents into existence but in order to do that, I needed names for them and I have found the perfect website to get them from. It's a Tumblr page titled 'meet the Sugar Rush parents' so full credit to the owner of that page.**

 **Also, this was rather late for upload due to college on my end being a pain with a lot of work but regardless of such, I will continue with this story as well as the short series made in conjunction with this. For now, I hope you all have been enjoying my story so far as I have made it past 1,000 views in total and I appreciate it. Adios!**


	18. Citrusella's Secret

**Out of all of the racers in the game, only one of them has a crush on John and that person is Citrusella.**

* * *

John was resting under a lonely candy cane tree on a hill while all of the others were racing during arcade hours.

Though he had his eyes closed, he opened them every five minutes and on one time, he saw Citrusella standing above his head looking down at him.

"Is this all you ever do when you are free?" she stood with her arms crossed together. Citrusella is just as skilled as her sister when it comes to racing, but she has the personality and mind of a six year-old.

"Hey, it's my day off work, also with the others racing, I thought relaxing up here would be a good idea. Speaking of racing, why aren't you there?" John closed his eyes again. "I didn't make it this time." She sadly said.

"Well, if you're here to join me, you're more than welcome." John said as she sat down beside him; Citrusella admire the scenery around here and took a deep breath.

In the distance, candy-themed monsters spawned in and charged towards the two; "John, you might want to do that thingy that you do..."

While the monsters were still approaching them, John got up and held out his arm to call his sword at the same time of pointing with his other hand to the tree behind her; "Do me a favour and hide behind that tree until I'm done, and don't look."

John charged towards them; his sword arrived on time as he leaped into the air from a large rock to fight the monsters. Citrusella hid behind the tree and covered her ears to block out the sounds from all the fighting.

Regardless, she still looked on at the fight and saw John swiftly dodge and strike his sword into the monsters; _"Wow, he's fast and strong."_ Citrusella said in her head as she imagined a scenario afterwards.

John finished killing the monsters and watches as their bodies disappeared into thin air; John turned to pick up flowers and hand them over to Citrusella.

"Hey, Ci? Earth to Citrusella..." John voiced echoed as Citrusella snapped back to reality and saw no flowers but the bodies that remained there. "We should be getting back; it's not safe up here as I thought." John ran off with Citrusella following on behind.

* * *

They made their way to the starting line as the recent game has ended and the player has left the game cabinet. John approached Candlehead while Citrusella made her way to the other recolors; "So, who won?" Citrusella asked while trying to watch John in the distance.

"Vanellope again. The gamers must really love playing as her, probably due to her glitching." Sticky said; she wasn't upset for losing as she is already use to it.

"Hey, I was planning for a sleep over if you all want to join me?" Nougetsia announced to the three; the other two nod their heads while Citrusella continued to stare at John, not realising that the three are watching her do it.

"Ci, who are you looking at?" the three looked at who she was staring at; Citrusella quickly looked away and her cheeks lit red, "Nothing..." the three know who and they all smirked.

"You like John." They all said which nearly everyone heard. "Please don't tell anyone." Citrusella begged, the three made a promise which made Citrusella smile.

"Quarter alert!" Taffyta shouted which everyone then got back into their karts to prepare for the next race; Citrusella watched as John fist-bumped Candlehead and ran for the castle afterwards, she followed after him.

* * *

Arriving at the castle, John stopped and turned to see Citrusella slowly catching up to him; "Took your time. Why are you following me?" John said. "I- uh, I don't have anything to do. Can I stay with you?" Citrusella asked while tapping her fingers together and biting her lip, looking down at the ground.

"Fine, you can stay." Citrusella hugged onto him but quickly let go before following him into his room. He set up his console and began playing a game and handed her a controller; she couldn't take her eyes off him throughout the day and the funny part is that John doesn't know.

One the day was nearly over, the racers were parking their karts in the big garage. Moments later, a giant robot that resembles a octopus attacks Sugar Rush, forcing everyone to leave while John stayed behind to battle the robot with his suit and sword. "Haven't used this in a while." John said to himself as he set the speakers to a chosen song of his own as he confronted the robot; Blue Stahli – "Down in Flames".

Citrusella hid behind debris while watching John fight the robot; John thought to boost around it and take it from behind, he fails as the robot slapped him down with one of its tentacles. The robot constantly whips at him with each tentacle until he was weak.

A tentacle impaled him through his abdomen; his sword has been dropped near him but out of reach and he cries in pain with every second. Citrusella came out of cover and secretly climbed the back of the robot to find the control panel and to remove the hatch in the way; she pulled out a few wires which caused the robot to go haywire.

Citrusella fell off while John got free and used his sword to break through the robot, slicing it in half. Most of it began exploding when John covered up Citrusella for protection.

As the other racers were running in, John stood with his arms crossed and scolded Citrusella; "You could've gotten yourself hurt or killed, regardless of respawns. Why didn't you leave with the others?" Citrusella stood while looking down, depressed.

"I just wanted to help..." John sighed, "As much as I hate to say it, I can't disagree to not thank you for the save, even if it meant disobeying orders."

Once the others arrived, John picked up a piece of the robot and found a familiar logo: Eggman's face; "How? Eggman is in his cell at Chrometech." John said to himself. Vanellope came forward to inspect the damage done by the robot; "Ugh, we need to get this place cleaned up. Everyone, continue to what you were doing."

Everyone went away while John and Vanellope discussed the situation; Citrusella stayed behind and noticed something glowing inside the robot's core. She proceeded in to investigate while watching to see if Vanellope and John would stay where they are.

When she got to the core, she reached in and pulled out a gem, a Chaos Emerald. "Ohh, so pretty." She said as she stared at it continuously; "What is that in your hand, Ci?" Vanellope questioned as she stood behind Citrusella; while keeping the emerald behind her, she turned to face Vanellope with a nervous expression.

"Nothing." Vanellope grinned and held her hand out, "Show me." She then took it out and revealed it to Vanellope who had shown fear; "Hand it over, Ci." Citrusella refused as she placed it behind herself again.

"It's ok, I'll look after it." Vanellope held her hand out yet again, where Citrusella then gave her the emerald and left without saying anything at all. "I better get this to a safe place; Sour Bill, ensure that John meets me with Sonic in the castle in the morning." She said to the small, green, sour ball that stood beside her.

* * *

The next day, John and Sonic stood facing the throne while Vanellope presented the Chaos Emerald to them; "This was found within the wreckage yesterday and it must've been used as a power source."

"If you claim that Egghead is stuck behind bars, I don't know who else would send the robot, or would be stupid enough to use the Chaos Emerald." Sonic said.

"Well, you may want to get that emerald out of here and to somewhere safe before something else happens." John said; the ground began shaking slightly until a few moments later when it had gotten more violent. The three ran outside to see the same robot cause more destruction; it was twice the size as its predecessor.

"Vanellope, get everyone to safety. Sonic, you're with me." John and Sonic split parts with Vanellope who began helping everyone escape; John called his suit and sword while Sonic makes the first hit.

He would run past the tentacles and spin-dash through the obstacles in his way until he came across a ramp and shot up into the air before coming back down in an attempt to dash through the robot from above; it fails as he is smacked away by an unseen tentacle.

Sonic performed more and more attacks from a spin-dash but with no success as the robot constantly deflected him; John finally joined in the battle and observed the destructive scenery.

"I got a plan: dash through there to that ramp behind it, doing so will give me enough time to distract it long enough for you to land the first attack." John instructed the hedgehog who smirked before spin-dashing away.

John ran towards the robot to cause it to attack him; he dodges the attacks and throws some of his own in which were deflected. Sonic made it to the ramp where he was able to get up behind it; unfortunately for him, Metal Sonic came in by surprise and pinned Sonic to a wall and sending electric shocks through his body to incapacitate him and John was yet again impaled in the same place.

"I just had that regenerated by nanos, you dick!" John spat out blood afterwards; Metal has added a voice chip to his new model, "Give me the Chaos Emerald or he dies." Metal threatened him as he slowly began chocking Sonic to death.

"I don't... have it." John began blacking out from the pain; Metal released Sonic who fell to the ground in pain. Metal picked up John's sword and approached John until a stone hit him on the back of the head.

"Hey, look what I have." Citrusella taunted as she held the Chaos Emerald out in her hand, prompting Metal to give chase while she ran away.

Due to the distraction, Sonic was able to recover and go after Citrusella before Metal could get to her. Sonic picked her up and ran back to John, placing her down next to him while Sonic took the Chaos Emerald to grant himself limited invincibility to cut through the tentacle that is impaling John, freeing him.

"I'll handle Metal." Sonic used the emerald's power to take on Metal elsewhere while John continued to distract the robot, allowing Citrusella to sneak her way around it and to its control panel, just like yesterday.

One tentacle grabbed her but she held onto the wires and as she was being pulled off, the wires were coming loose; John quickly saved her before he could finish off the robot as he placed her down behind cover.

 _"My hero."_ Citrusella thought in her head; "You can be really clingy! You just got to loosen up!" John said to the robot as he charged at it with full force and performed a spin-dash of his own in mid-air with his sword, going straight through the robot and nabbing the two emeralds that were inside before escaping and watching the robot explode.

Metal turned to watch as his robot exploded into many pieces but wasn't able to turn in time to dodge Sonic's attack which broke most of his body. Metal used whatever power he had left to escape Sugar Rush.

John, Sonic and Citrusella gathered up together and Sonic had all three emeralds in his hands; the others were returning to congratulate John and Sonic for their victory. Citrusella was upset and left while the others continued celebrating.

* * *

Later that night, John came by Citrusella in her room to check on her; "Your mother really hates it when I get hurt, I didn't know your mother was a doctor. Hey, what's wrong?" he noticed how saddened she was as she was crying and curling herself up into a ball on her bed.

"Nobody believes that I helped you guys; they all said I was too scared." John sat down besides her and placed his arm on her shoulders to comfort her; "Don't listen to what everyone says; I'm sure Jubileena and Candlehead believed you."

She wiped a few tears away and sat up normally; "Not even my own sis would believe me..." she sniffed and rested her head on his arm.

"Hey, you're not like the others, you're stronger than them... other than Candlehead, but you're better than them. You saved me twice and I thank you for that." John got down on his knees and faced her as she slightly smirked.

"Just keep remembering that next time." John said before he kissed her on the cheek; he got up and went to the door. Citrusella's cheeks lit up red yet again as she smiled; "I know you like me. Just don't take it too far, alright?" John left the room and Citrusella sighed happily before fainting on her bed.

* * *

 **This was just one of the few chapters that I spent two years planning; many changes were made such as who would be the racer to have the crush until I decided to choose Citrusella out of all people. Don't worry if you're thinking about Lucy being with John as there is still hope for that.**


	19. Rise of the Ninja

**A new threat arrives in the arcade, a ninja known as Shi, the warrior of death.**

* * *

At the docks in a game, a group of workers are carrying carts full of materials and placing them inside containers that were being loaded onto a cargo ship; a vehicle pulls up to the area and a man wearing a long coat and a fedora leaves to approach the workers.

"I want every container loaded and placed on the ship within the hour, no excuses." The man said, "But boss, there's too much for us to move..." one of the workers spoke up which the man turned back to him with his cane pointing at the guy's throat. "Then work faster!"

Fifteen minutes has passed during the whole shipping when a cloaked old guy came waltzing in with a long stick to walk with; "Turn back around! You are not authorised to be here!" one of the guards yelled, he held an assault rifle and so did the others. Regardless, the old man continued onwards until one of the guards approached him, "Are you deaf?! I said get out of here!"

Once he was within range, the old man pulled something out of the stick, a thin but pointy blade which he stabbed the guard through the heart and took off the cloak. It was John, pretending to be a old guy just to get inside the area as close as possible.

The guard dropped the gun but John quickly picked it up and began firing upon the other guards, forcing a shootout between him and them; the coated man quickly boarded the ship and the last container was loaded onto the ship. John used the guard's body as cover from gunfire; moments later, a van filled with Chrometech soldiers arrived and assisted John while he made a run for the departing ship.

With luck, John was able to climb aboard to take out the oblivious guards and use their weapons against them.

The boss looked out of the window from the control room ahead and saw John approach the room; "Get everyone out there, stop him!" many of the guards ran out to face John who wasn't stopping at anything to reach the target.

After another shootout, John was able to kill every guard and proceed to the control room; the boss had no weapon of his own and was on his knees surrendering as John came through the door.

"So, after two months of tracking you down, we finally have you." John summoned his sword and pointed it at the boss and waved it upwards to make him stand and pointed at the door. Before the man moved, John was immediately kicked out of the window by a mysterious figure; the rest of the armor suit arrived after recovering from the surprise attack.

Another person stepped out and drawn a katana, the person was a ninja, dressed with a dark navy blue outfit. "Let me fill you in on some advice kid: never underestimate ninjas. Sneaky little bastards, they are." The boss said as he watched the two stood face-to-face.

Unlike John, the ninja wore no armor but he relied on using his skills more than anything else; the ninja jumped up about 35ft in the air and slammed his sword down at John who parried the attack and made a side-dodge afterwards. John made a few fast and hard swings but the ninja bested him at his own battle; both swords collided and the area surrounded them exploded with containers being forced away and the boss falling over.

John drew his palm at a fast pace to shoot plasma into the ninja's face; unfortunately for him, the ninja predicted the attack and was able to dodge it. John then unloaded all of his guns in an attempt to kill the ninja; over 100 bullets a second and each one was deflected by his extreme speed.

One lucky shot got him square in the forehead and John watched as his body dropped like a bomb to the floor. The boss observed the battle and panicked when he saw the ninja dead; John then proceeded to bag the guy.

"Warukunai ga, watashi wa chōsen o kitai shimashita..." John turned to see what he didn't expect; the ninja raised back up and looked directly at him with blood covering his entire hood. "What the hell?"

John rushed and slashed with his sword which sliced the ninja in half for a second before the injury healed almost instantly. The ninja picked his katana up and went berserk on John, making multiple slashed that John attempted to deflect.

Out of nowhere, an entire right arm flew through the air, off the boat and into the sea; John looked down at his right arm... that was lost.

Blood was gushing everywhere and John was backing up as far as possible as the ninja approached him; a trail of blood followed John up to the back of the ship where he then couldn't move anywhere. As the ninja got close, he prepared the katana for a finishing strike but had to move back when a chopper came into sight; John saw as backup arrived and a hail of bullets stormed the ship but no one got hit. With the chance, John backed off the ship and into the freezing waters below. An explosion was heard and all he saw was the same chopper fall into the ocean and the ship left as John began fainting.

* * *

Voices echoed through John's head as he also opened his eyes slightly to see himself being moved into a room and watched as someone injected him in his left arm with something. _"Will he be alright?"_ John could hear a conversation but couldn't open his eyes to see who it was; _"I injected nanomachines into his bloodstream, it should stop the bleeding long enough for you to do your part."_

John awoken with a slight headache as he held his head with his left hand and looked to his left to see a familiar face. "John, are you ok?" it was Cheri; she looked worried yet confident as she asked him; "My head's on fire. How long was I out?" John asked.

"You were unconscious for three days. I patched up your arm with the help of your friend." Cheri pointed through the window at Doktor who was occupying himself with work; John then looked down at his missing arm and saw only a stump that has been patched with a lot of bandaged which were bloody. "My arm..."

Cheri gave him some tablets to help with the headache; "The process of cleaning up and patching your arm was messy. Please, don't make me do the same thing again." John rested his head on Cheri's shoulder and began crying to which Cheri hugged him.

Moments later, Candlehead, Lucy and the others came running in upset and worried; Candlehead wouldn't stop hugging into John. "What the hell happened?!" Lucy asked, "I was active on a mission when a ninja cut off my arm." Lucy ran to him and kissed him on the lips without second thought; the racers stood watching as they shared kisses, "Not the most romantic moment, but it takes away the pain." John said as he held Lucy with the only arm he had.

* * *

A couple days have passed and wherever John went, either Lucy or Candlehead would help him carry something or control something. "You don't have to do this for me." John said to Candlehead, patting her on the head. "I just want to be a big help." A codec call was heard and John answered it; "Doktor? You have what? I'll be right there." John left in a hurry with Candlehead following him.

Within Doktor's lab, John was presented with a gift: a prosthetic cyborg arm; Doktor placed it on him and John couldn't stop admiring it. "That's not all. I have some information about our 'friend' who intervened with the mission the other day: he goes by the name 'Shi', meaning death in Japanese. Though I couldn't find out which game he came from, I have found this: he is the only character that can regenerate outside his own game!"

"Are you telling me he is immortal?" John asked nervously; Doktor could only say yes to him, "I don't know how he does it, but I will try to get more information. In the meantime, you should try to get use to your new arm." Doktor guided John and Candlehead out of the lab as he returned to his office. "So what's going to happen now?" Candlehead asked, "Honestly, I don't know. We should be careful from now on; I can tell, a war is coming."

* * *

 **And thus, blood shall be spilled. John has many new problems to worry about while his friends depend on him to deal with the troubles ahead.**

 **I just ran out of ideas with this chapter so I kept it as short and basic as possible; at least on the bright side, John and Lucy are now together.**


	20. Birthday Boy

**It is John's birthday and all of his friends want to give him the best birthday he will ever have, but they need someone to keep him away from the castle.**

* * *

It was a normal day in Sugar Rush; Jubileena and Minty sat on a bench outside of the castle, sorting out a pile of cards when Vanellope, Candlehead and Taffyta approached them.

"What are these?" Taffyta said as she picked up one of the cards which looks to be an invitation; "We're making invitation cards." They both said at the same time; "For what?" Taffyta asks yet again, still confused. "It's for John's birthday party." Vanellope explained.

"Wait, what? John's birthday?!" Taffyta began breathing heavily as she became even more confused; "It's his birthday tomorrow and he is 17." Candlehead informed the panicking girl.

"TOMORROW?! I gotta go get John something quick!" Taffyta left in a hurry with Vanellope catching up to her, Candlehead stayed behind to help Minty and Jubileena. "Ok..." the three stared in confusion until one of them broke the silence.

"So what's the plan?" Candlehead asked the two, Minty gave Candlehead some of the cards "We will hand these out. See how many people will accept, but don't let John see them." Minty and Jubileena took the remaining cards and the three left Sugar Rush.

* * *

In Game Central Station, the three racers were handing out invitation cards to anyone that would pass them as well as informing them to not tell John; Candlehead encountered Lucy and stopped to talk to her.

"Hey Lucy, what you up to?" Lucy turned to see Candlehead behind her but also looked in different directions cautiously, "Is John with you?"

"No." Candlehead also looked around; "I'm looking for something to give to John for his birthday. Are those invitation cards?" Lucy saw at least three cards in Candlehead's hand.

"Yeah, how did you know?" Candlehead asked, "Minty told me about them. I want to get something nice for John, something that he will love, but what?"

The two looked around for something of interest, anything that would be perfect as a gift; Candlehead spotted something and called Lucy over. "What is it?"

It was a golden locket, a heart that can split into two halves and attach back together and also fits a small photo inside. "It's perfect! How much is it for this locket?" Lucy asked the shopkeeper, "That will be 20 gold coins."

Lucy paid for the locket and returned to Sugar Rush with Candlehead; before boarding the train there, Minty and Jubileena caught up with them. "That's all of the invitations handed out." The two were relieved to state; "Hold up!" a familiar voice was heard when Lucy quickly placed the locket into her pocket.

John turned the corner and ran for the train and sat down next to Candlehead; "Thanks. Can you believe this? This arm won't stop making weird sounds, it's irritating."

Though the others just went on with the conversation, keeping the surprise a secret, John looked down at Candlehead's pocket and saw something that looks suspicious; "What's that, Candlehead?" Candlehead slowly took it out and peaked at the item, noticing it to be a spare invitation card; she quickly placed it back into her pocket.

"Nothing! It's just a shopping list for, erm... things." Candlehead nervously said fast, John raised an eyebrow but decided to forget about it.

"Anyway, I got some VR training to do if you're willing to watch?" John asked Candlehead who agreed to go but as they were getting off the train, Candlehead quickly handed Jubileena the remaining card.

* * *

The day continued on with John attempting VR until the day was over; while John slept during the night, Lucy and Vanellope met up in the throne room.

"Is John asleep?" Lucy asked to be sure, "Yeah, I made sure of that before coming down here. So here is my plan: if we wait until John has left the castle in the morning, we can begin decorating the place; I will leave Cheri, Crumbelina and Mary in charge of making the cake while the rest of us will do our part."

"He knows that we know it's his birthday tomorrow but he doesn't know about the party we have planned." Vanellope stated, the two then went back to bed.

* * *

In the morning, John was leaving the castle to head out to Game Central Station when all the racers and Nicelanders arrived at the castle; they were given their jobs to do. "All right everyone, we have until John gets back from whatever he's doing. Let's get moving!" Vanellope announced.

"Candlehead, can you go out and find John and make sure he doesn't return early?" Vanellope asked Candlehead, "You can count on me, Vanellope."Candlehead then ran out of the castle, nearly tripping up in the process and left the game.

Upon arriving in GCS, Candlehead searched through the crowd until she ran straight into John and fell to the floor; "Candlehead, watch where you are going next time. Are you alright?" John asked as he helped her up off the floor.

"I'm fine. I want to spend time with you, there's barely anything to do back at the castle." Candlehead said, "Ok, I don't have much planned for today but we can improvise." John said.

"I have an idea: we could go VR training." Candlehead said which surprised John, "You, in a VR? Really?"

"I don't see why not." Candlehead nervously chuckles until they both head to Chrometech.

Back at the party, the decorations are going as planned and so is the cake; Mary was working on the designs of the figures included on the cake as well as the overall design while Cheri and Crumbelina were baking the cake itself.

During the VR simulation, Candlehead was tasked with collecting a few small items while John would protect her and fight against the enemies which were a combination of terrorist soldiers and demons.

Candlehead was running all over the place as she attempted to avoid the bullets that nearly hit her on a few occasions; "Why did I sign up for this?!" she yelled, "You didn't sign up for anything!" John yelled back.

The VR ended and Candlehead ran out of the room as fast as she could, catching her breath afterwards while John casually walks out.

"Hey, you wanted to try out the VR, so don't go pointing fingers and saying it's my fault." John said while he began putting his equipment away.

Candlehead reached in to her pocket and slowly pulled out a small box, she stood to think for a minute until she placed it back in before John saw. _"Maybe later"_ she said in her head.

"Let's head back to the castle, I'm pretty worn out from all this exercise. And I can tell you are, too." John stated; the two left, but Candlehead looked nervous as she thinks the preparations are not complete yet.

* * *

Everything but the cake was finished in the castle and Vanellope had Gloyd on watch from the balcony on the second floor; he came running down at the sight of John and Candlehead approaching the castle and announced to the others.

"But the cake is not ready!" Mary cried which everyone started panicking; "We're just going to have to go with the plan." Vanellope suggested to everyone.

Outside, John was just seconds from opening the doors when Candlehead quickly took the box out of her pocket and hid it behind her; "Wait, I just want to say something before we go in." Candlehead stopped him.

"Ok, what do you have in mind?" John asked; Candlehead thought in her head, hoping everyone is prepared for the surprise but hopes to stall John long enough, "We have been friends for a long time, a year and a half, but during that long time, I have been thinking that I wasn't a good enough friend for you."

"Oh, Candlehead, you're the best friend anyone could ever have." John cheered her up a little; "I know the last birthday you had wasn't all that exciting to you, barely anyone knew but ever since then, I wanted to give you something and I thought now would have been the best time." Candlehead revealed the box and handed it to John who opened it.

When he took it out, it was a amulet with a green gem, it was well made; "I made it myself and thought it would bring you good luck." Candlehead twirled her fingers around and looked down to the ground.

"It's beautiful, but all I ever need for luck is you." John put it on and got down on his knee to suggest a hug; Candlehead hugged him tight, "Happy birthday, John."

The two proceeded to enter the castle which was pitch black until the lights came on, "SURPRISE!" everyone appeared with balloons and confetti poppers; John's jaw dropped harder than his punches and was both happy and excited.

"Aww, you guys." Lucy snuck up behind John and hugged him from behind, "Happy birthday, John!" she said before kissing him on the cheek.

Vanellope came forward, "I wanted to make this all for you considering how busy I was last year on your birthday. The cake isn't ready yet but everything else is." She informed him and Candlehead guided him to a pile of presents.

He began opening them; the some of the presents he got were a new bionic arm which was an update; the golden locket; a copy of the game he wanted so much and many more things. With the locket, John had one half which had a small photo of Lucy while she had the other half with a small photo of John.

The cake was made and brought out and it was a set of raised platforms with everybody on them and John alongside Candlehead, Lucy and Doktor were on the highest platform. He made a wish and blew out the candles... along with Candlehead's candle. Afterwards, they began partying until the day was over.

* * *

 **And John is 17 at this point and canonically it has been one and a half year since John arrived in the arcade world. Enough talk, on with the bloopers!**

 **BLOOPERS:**

Chapter 16 – Christmas Spirit:

Every time John or Candlehead move on icy ground, they trip up which in turn messes up their role; "Will you two stop slipping and get a hold of yourselves!" Calhoun yelled as she was watching from off the set. "We can't help it. Why don't you take over if you seem to know what you're doing!" John got up and walked off the set with Calhoun chasing after him.

Chapter 17 – Parental Guidance:

"Fine, whatever it takes to kill that little shit. Commence the training if you must." X said as he approached the armoured suit which all of a sudden began falling apart. "What have you done to my masterpiece?!" Dahm sarcastically yelled at X while the whole crew began laughing at the mistake.

Chapter 18 – Citrusella's Secret:

"Haven't used this in a while." John said as he activated the speakers to play the music... which was a compilation of Justin Bieber music. "Who the hell is in charge of setting the music for this thing? I asked for Blue Stahli, not this bullshit!" John yelled at the crew off stage when one of the members slowly raised their hand.

Chapter 19 – Rise of the Ninja:

When John stabbed the thin but pointy blade through the guard, the guard dropped the gun which John tried to pick up but due to the weight of the guard, John fell to the ground. "CUT!" the director yelled.

Chapter 20 – Birthday Boy:

While sitting on the train, John notices the card barely hanging out of Candlehead's pocket, it however falls out and he reads it; "You were supposed to keep this thing in your pocket, Candlehead." John said to the oblivious girl until she noticed what was going on. "My bad." The director face palms himself in disappointment.


	21. Metallic Gear

**Chrometech is under attack from a anonymous threat as most AI weaponry go haywire and start attacking everyone there.**

* * *

Doktor is doing a weapons check alongside the commander; they move into the AI weapons hangar which held some Metal Gears that were made for combat.

Each Metal Gear was checked thoroughly, in case if they had any missing parts or were damaged from previous missions; once he had checked through all of them, Doktor and the commander were about to leave the hangar when something strange happened.

One of the D-Walkers came to life and began firing at the two; "Sir, get down!" the commander dived into Doktor and hid behind a small bit of cover. The commander got shot in the leg while diving.

"We need backup now!" the injured commander yelled into his codec which soon after, a few soldiers turned up and gave the two cover to escape while they dealt with the rampaging mech.

Another D-Walker came to life and retaliated until they both were destroyed; the conflict resulted in a few injured soldiers and one commander.

Half an hour later, John arrived to investigate the outbreak with Doktor; "Thankfully, no one died from this." John stated, "Still, it's odd. Why would the walker attack us if it has been programmed to obey us?"

"I found the problem." Doktor announced as he took something out from the D-Walker, a small transmitter that was flashing red.

"A transmitter? What's a transmitter doing inside our own weapons?" John took a closer look at the thing before crushing it with his cybernetic arm; "It seems we have a enemy on the inside. Until we can locate and find out who this intruder is, I suggest we double security around here. I will inform all guards to keep an eye out for suspicious activity." Doktor said.

John left while Doktor took the other transmitter to search inside it; one thing John notices with a guard is that he is entering a restricted area which only construction workers and high class employees can enter.

"Hey! Stop right there!" John began running after the guard who began walking fast, passing by another weapons hangar which had a larger sized Metal Gears that are currently being developed.

John was losing sight of the guard until he saw him enter inside a Metal Gear Excelsus; John had to climb up a scaffolding to get inside; he lost sight of the guard again.

Upon turning around, the guard stood behind John and threw a punch, knocking John off balance while the guard picked up a wrench to use; John got back up and fought back. He made his move by dashing towards the guard and disarming of the wrench, punching him in the stomach and slamming his elbow onto the guy's back; the guard attempted to get back up but was ultimately defeated when John threw him into the wall.

"Anyone on comms? Get to Excelsus 4 immediately." John dragged the body out of the mech and waited for security to arrive.

* * *

Moments later, an interrogation was made when James began questioning the guard about his motivations; "You were found tampering with something inside the Metal Gear, I'm going to ask you again what you were doing in there?"

The guard wouldn't speak, causing James to continue beating him until he spills; through the viewing window were John and Doktor watching the whole interrogation. "He's not going to break. Someone has taught him well, and I fear that he has something to do with sabotaging the Metal Gears." Doktor said as he watched James brutally beat the guy up.

"Who are you working for?! What are your boss' goals?!" James continued to beat the guard but it served no justice; behind John and Doktor was Cheri who was shocked at the bloody beatings in the other room.

Cheri couldn't help but look terrified until she looked away; "Cheri, you ok?" John followed her into another room, "How could people watch something like that? Anyway, I brought you this." She gave him a file.

"Thanks. You don't look so good, what's wrong?" Cheri looked depressed and tired; "Today was a terrible day; all I ever did was patch up wounds and heal injuries which made a lot of blood and it was messy. Some of the men here are rude too."

John opened the files to look at the information regarding the transmitter from before, it wasn't much as it doesn't mention who made the transmitter. "I better get going. I need some time to myself today." Cheri said as she left while John returned back to the interrogation.

"From Cheri." John handed the documents over to Doktor, "Thank you, I had some people to take a look at the transmitter while I was away. We got nothing from this guy."

The interrogation ended as the guard fell unconscious after a brutal beating. The guard got placed in a cell while James returned to his post; John returned to the castle and Doktor returned to his office.

* * *

At the castle, John ran into Tessa who looked desperate to see him; "What's up, Tess?"

"I can't get this guy out of my head; I've been dreaming of this man every night and I believe he has something to do with what happened to me in my past." Tessa has been bringing this up a few times in the past to John, but he couldn't do much to help.

"So do you want me to look into this guy? What does he look like?" John questioned, "He um, he has brown hair, a black suit with red tie and polished shoes; I always see him carry around a shotgun in my nightmares."

John noted this all down and places the paper in his pocket; "I'll look into this guy, I will let you know if I find anything relating to him."

Tessa hugged into him, "Thanks, you're the best!" she then went on her way while John returned to his room.

* * *

The next two days have passed by and nothing else happened at Chrometech; in the briefing room, Doktor, John, Candlehead, James, Vanellope and Ralph sat at the table in silence.

"It's been two days since our last attack and since then, nothing else suspicious has happened. Whether it has been someone trying to mess with us or a message they try to send, we better step up security." Doktor finally spoke up.

"What about the guy we found?" John asked, "He's dead, we found him dead in his cell. He had cyanide hidden in a fake tooth." James informed John who sighed.

"So what, we're just going to sit here and let this thing pass?" Ralph questioned the team; no one knew what to do next until something else happened. "Regarding the death of a traitor, I have something which might be a start." Doktor opened the file that lay on the table.

Candlehead got up and began walking out of the room; "What's wrong, Candlehead?" John asked, "I just want to take a walk."

"Ok, just stay out of the weapons hangar." Candlehead then left the room and began walking around, passing the many guards that were just doing their jobs, though they gave her strange look.

John told her to stay out of the weapons hangar but she refused to listen and went straight in; she admire the many firearms that were placed on the stocks, getting closer looks at most of them. She saw a strange, small black object which she went over to look at.

She read the description, " _'C3: plastic explosives that can be reshaped for a modified explosion'_ who invents this stuff?" she took some with her and continued down the hangar towards the vehicle hangar.

She passed the Metal Gears and eventually made her way up to one of the Excelsus units; "Whoa!" she was amazed by the size of the mech; in the distance, she could see a group of people enter the hangar. Candlehead hid behind the mech and watched them until she saw Mr. X accompanied by a few Chrometech guards and a mysterious ninja-like warrior.

"Are the bombs set in place?" X asked the guards, "Yes sir, the C3 have been stolen. Should we continue as planned?" one of the guards took out a detonator and pressed the button as X nodded.

The entire building began shaking when a loud explosion caught everyone off guard. "We have to move if we want this to work." The ninja character said when he and X approached the Excelsus Candlehead was hiding by; she saw an opening to get inside the mech and hid in there as X boarded the mech and the ninja left by a secret way out.

Candlehead thought she was safe until the mech began moving and busted through a wall out of the facility, only to stop halfway out and heard X speaking over the speakers. _"Well, well, well, if it isn't the shit stain himself. You won't get in my way, not this time!"_ the mech began moving in a weird motion until it continued moving forward.

* * *

 **10 Minutes Ago**

After Doktor opened the file, he handed photos over to each person at the table; the photos viewed a set of codes that were hidden in the transmitter. "What do they mean, Dok?" James asked.

"I'm not sure. I have a team doing the best they can to crack the code. But that's not all." Doktor viewed another photo on the big monitor which was a tattoo on the guard's body.

"This tattoo belongs to a group which have been known for their crimes; they disbanded many years ago, but why is this one wearing their signature logo?" Doktor was confused.

"Does this mean we have to search through every guard here for that tattoo?" James asked, "If it's necessary then yes, but it will lower the security should we do this."

Out of nowhere, an explosion brought the side wall down upon them; thanks to Ralph, he was able to break through the collapsing wall and kept Vanellope and John safe but James and Doktor were injured in the process.

Doktor's arm was broken and James sprained his foot; "Stay still. Ralph, Vanellope, keep these two safe until backup arrives, I need to find Candlehead." John said as he left the room in a hurry.

More of Chrometech began falling apart and many people were either injured or dead from the explosions or falling debris. John passes by Cheri who is panicking; "Cheri, where's Candlehead?" John quickly asks, "I don't know. What's going on?"

"I don't know. Can you get to the briefing room? Doktor and James need your help; I'm going to find Candlehead." John helped her up and guided her off while he headed outside.

Upon making it out, the wall to his left came crumbling down when one of the Excelsus unit came charging out; "Well, well, well, isn't it the shit stain himself. You won't get in my way this time!" X's voice was heard over the speaker and he makes the mech perform an attack which John dodges but the reaction time from the mech caught John off guard and knocks him unconscious. X then leaves Sugar Rush with the Excelsus and left Chrometech in shambles.

* * *

John awoken sometime later and returned to the briefing room; Lucy was there and was upset but finally excited when she saw John, "Your alive!" she hugged him tightly until she let go.

James sat down on a chair with a cast for his foot and has crutches; Doktor had a cast for his arm. "John, we couldn't find Candlehead; we searched every inch of this place and she was nowhere to be found. We can only assume that she was kidnapped." Doktor said.

"It was X, he was the one responsible for the breakout. Maybe he was the one responsible for the attack two days ago." John stated.

"We need to find him and destroy that thing and to rescue Candlehead." Ralph suggested, "I have received Intel from a soldier that I sent out to find it; he claims it to be hidden in a base deep within a jungle."

"So what are we waiting for?" John questioned as he walked to leave the room to which Lucy stopped him, "You can't go alone; James can't go and I doubt Ralph will be capable by himself, no offence."

"Good point, call in Sonic." John still left the room, causing Lucy to look away in disappointment at his stupidity; an hour has passed and Sonic has arrived at the facility.

"All right, listen up. You three will follow the coordinates to the base; once you're there, find the Excelsus and destroy it. Do not return until you have found Candlehead." Doktor instructed John, Ralph and Sonic.

They were ready to leave and they did; it would take them long to get to the base.

* * *

Candlehead sat alone inside the mech, she felt cold and began shivering; "I wish John would hurry up and rescue me, I feel like a prisoner in here." She said to herself.

All of a sudden, the door to get inside opened and many constructors came in; Candlehead quickly got up and hide away from them as they inspect the hardware of the mech. They did not see Candlehead at all when she hid inside Excelsus.

X came inside and was talking to one of the workers when the ninja character came in at the same time; she would try to memorise his face.

The team were passing through the jungle, constantly getting themselves caught in the vines that hung from the trees. "How far do we have to go?" Sonic constantly complained which annoyed Ralph so much.

"That's the tenth time you've asked within the last hour!" Ralph scolded Sonic; John only concentrated on finding the base and to his excitement, they were facing the front gates.

The alarm for the base alerted all of the soldiers within as they rushed out to combat the three; they would combine their strengths together to defeat the army.

X saw on the monitor at the arrival of the team; "Screw it! I'm going out there." X said as he approached the modified Excelsus. "B-but sir, it's not ready." Dahm was there as he saw his boss enter the mech without saying a word. Candlehead stumbled and fell as the mech began moving again.

The mech came through the loading bay and took the three head on; with the giant plasma blades, the mech swung at John who held it off with Verdugo. Sonic ran up the blade, avoiding the hot part of the blade while attempting to destroy the automatic turrets on the head.

Ralph aimed for the legs and with each punch would make a dent; one of the legs moved to kick Ralph away while the mech charged towards Sonic as he came at it, the force of the impact knocked Sonic off balance and with a swipe from the safe side of the blade, he got smashed into a wall; John suffered the same except he landed into a pile of boxes.

"It's impossible, we can't defeat it!" John said over comms; "Psst, come over here." A voice was heard to the left of John which he looked to see Dahm hide behind another pile of boxes.

Ralph gained X's attention which gave John the time to go see the doctor; "Who are you?" John questioned him, "My name is Dahm. I work for X, or I use to. Listen, if you want to destroy that thing, I suggest getting inside the mech through the vent on the back. Once you're inside, destroy the core, which should render it unable to function." Dahm informed John who stood confused.

"Why are you helping us?" he asked out of curiosity, "X only wants to be the best and relies on me to create his weapons and such; I want to use my intellect for the greater good. Besides, the guy's a fucking asshole!"

"Did you guys catch that?" John asked over the comms which Ralph was the only one to reply as Sonic was unconscious. "Yeah, I have an idea too. Get over here quick, kid!" John then ran and dodged the attacks from Excelsus as he made his way to Ralph.

"I'll run under it to get behind it, you go above it." With that said, Ralph made his run first while John jumped off his shoulders to get above it.

Behind the mech, Ralph picked John up and threw him at the vent which got him inside as he busted through it. While inside, John walked down to the core which sat at the center. "I don't have any explosives. Damn it!"

"John?" John heard Candlehead's voice behind him as he turned to see her in the flesh; "You're alive, I thought you were dead." Candlehead rushed over to him to hug him. "Wait a minute, what the hell are you doing in here?"

"I was... taking a look at the cool stuff. So I hid in here when I saw X." Candlehead told him which John gave her a grinning look on his face.

"I know, I'm sorry for not doing what you told me. I have this though." She took the C3 out of her jacket pocket and handed it over to him. "I'd kill you for disobeying me, but I'll let it slide." John stood to place the C3 all around the core and set the timer for ten seconds; he then picked up Candlehead and ran out of the mech, leaping out of it and landed safely on the ground.

The mech began exploding from the inside and after a few explosions; the head of Excelsus came flying off to the ground which an unconscious X sat in the cockpit seat.

Sonic regained his conscience and watched as the other three celebrated over the victory of the battle that is until he joined in. Backup arrived to place the still unconscious X inside a truck to transport him back to Chrometech.

Dahm was about to be placed in another truck until John came over to stop it from happening; they all returned to Chrometech but before that, Shiva was hiding within the shadows, watching them all until he faded away.

As the days were passing by, more of Chrometech was being reconstructed; X was placed in a cell with maximum security to ensure he doesn't escape at all; thanks to Doktor's generosity, he hired Dahm into the facility and made him head of the technology development team.

The briefing room was complete and John sat alone at the table but saw Cheri sat down opposite to him. "Do you think we can rest now, knowing that man is behind bars?" Cheri questioned the safety of the arcade to which John shrugged his shoulders.

"I don't know. I hope so, considering that X doesn't have any other followers that may try to break him out." Regardless of concern, Cheri smiled and was about to leave the room, "Speaking of rest, I can finally go home early today. Hopefully Jubs and Ci are taking care of themselves." She then left the room.

"I better be getting back as well, It's getting late." John said to himself as he approached the exit and turned out the lights to the room before locking the door behind him.

* * *

 **Excelsus has got to be the best Metal Gear for its size and weapons while Ray and Rex sit at the top of the list; they would probably appear soon enough. So X has finally been apprehended, though it doesn't mean the arcade is safe as there are other threats to arise.**


	22. Clonehead

**Due to Vanellope's careless movement, she causes Candlehead's code box to glitch and upon attempting to fix it, a new character is spawned.**

* * *

Vanellope was in the coding room, repairing a few codes that were requested to be fixed; "That should do it." Vanellope said proudly to herself.

John came down to the hallway before the room in the elevator, accompanied by Sour Bill; he watches as Vanellope makes the changes and updates to the game's coding. "Vanellope, we got a report on the coins appearing red." John informed Vanellope who then quickly moved over to the next box of coding.

The box had data on the winnings of each and every race and within it was all of the gold coins, except that they are red; Vanellope began making the changes when John began floating towards her.

"How often do you do this, fixing the game?" John asked out of curiosity, admiring all of the boxes of coding; "Not very often. This game rarely needs an update or patches." Vanellope finishes fixing the color on the coins, watching them as they change back to their original color.

"All right, let's go." As they were turning around to leave, John's cybernetic arm began bugging out until the side of the arm opened, _"Deploying smoke grenades."_ The voice chip in the arm said as a grenade slowly came out. "NONONONONONONO!" John began punching the arm to stop it but failed.

The grenade exploded, causing both John and Vanellope to be pushed back by the force of the explosion; Vanellope flew back too far and bumped right into a code box labeled 'Candlehead'.

Because of Vanellope's glitching, she causes the box to glitch out where then Candlehead herself began glitching too; she had Taffyta and Rancis with her and they were freaked out with what was happening.

Vanellope tried to fix the coding but all it did was made things worse for Candlehead; "WhatshouoldIdowhatshouldIdowhatshouldIdo! Help me John!" Vanellope was panicking when she turned to John for help.

"ROCKET PUNCH!" John yelled as he positioned his arm to aim for the code box and the arm came off and thrusters caused the arm to fly like a rocket and into the box. The impact of the punch caused to box to stop glitching while Candlehead was consumed by a ball of light until it spat two people out.

John and Vanellope came out from the code room to find Candlehead; she was up in the library and when they arrived, they saw two Candleheads, "What the hell?!" John said in confusion.

The two Candleheads stood up and gave each other a strange and surprising look; the other Candlehead was different in appearance: her clothes were a mix of light and dark red; her leggings were black and covered with red polka dots; the icing was also red and her hair and eyes were red. The candle on her hat had a black flame while the hat itself had no changes to it.

"Well that's just great, now we have two Candleheads." Taffyta remarked; "Hey, what's wrong with me?" both Candleheads said at the same time, they have the same voice as well.

"We can't keep calling them both Candlehead; only this one is the real Candlehead, so what shall we call the other one?" Rancis asked, "Let's see, different colors, looks like and acts like Candlehead. I got it, Clonehead!" Vanellope suggested out loud.

"I was thinking of calling her Katie but Clonehead will do." John said; both Candlehead and Clonehead gave each other a high-five and walked out of the room, leaving the four behind as they watched them leave.

"This isn't going to be easy, is it?" Rancis questioned everyone else when they all sighed.

Everyone else became confused when they saw Clonehead; they all thought that Minty Sakura has made a change in appearance that is until Minty proved them wrong.

* * *

As each day passed by, more about Clonehead's personality became clear; many of the racers were reporting to Vanellope that Clonehead is disrespectful and a bully. "She called me pathetic/she took my stuff and destroyed them/she vandalised my kart."

The more complaints Vanellope received, the more she was ready to explode; Clonehead was immediately hated by everyone in Sugar Rush, even by her original self.

"That's it, I had enough with this! Clonehead needs to be punished!" Vanellope angrily said; she left her throne and went to look for Clonehead who was in Candlehead's room, they were made to share the room together.

"Clonehead, stop with this attitude of yours, it's not nice!" She stood and said, watching as Clonehead searched through the box of pranks that she stolen from Gloyd; "Said who?" she back answered with a cocky tone. Vanellope has gotten even more annoyed, "I did. You're a menace to Sugar Rush and its people; you can either stop, or I will have you thrown into the Fungeon for as long as it takes."

"I don't give a shit for what you or anyone else thinks of me." Clonehead said which shocked Vanellope; she backed out of the room and yelled for the Oreo guards which they came rushing to her position. "Arrest her, throw her in the Fungeon and don't let her leave!" Clonehead backed up until she came to the window.

"Screw this, I'm out!" she said as she climbed out of the window and leaped for the chocolate lake below; "Get after her!" Vanellope demanded the guards as they ran for the outside to chase Clonehead.

Clonehead emerges from the lake and wipes off as much chocolate before making a run for Chrometech, losing the guards in the process.

* * *

Upon arriving at Chrometech, Clonehead approaches the entrance and confronts two guards who mistaken her for Candlehead, "Hello Candlehead, you can go right in." The guard said as the doors opened and Clonehead entered without second thought.

"Ha, dumb ass." She said once she was in; exploring the facility, Clonehead was admiring everything that was around her. She came to a window which she could see into a room; John was in this room, practising VR and she couldn't stop watching as John swiftly and flawlessly take on the enemies in the VR.

"Hmm, maybe I can use John to my advantage." Clonehead said to herself with glee; she continued on walking down the hallway until she came to the weapons hangar and then the hangar full of Metal Gears.

One of the Metal Gears caught her attention and Clonehead proceeded to the cockpit to sit in it; "I can use this, this looks easy enough."

"Hey! Get out of there!" one of the patrolling guards saw Clonehead inside the Metal Gear and yelled at her, pointing is firearm at the same time; Clonehead raised her arms in the air and pretended to be Candlehead. "Please don't shoot me, I was looking for a way out of here and I fell into this."

The guard bought her story but still had his gun pointing at her, "Yeah well beat it! The exit's that way!" she came down and left the area but as the guard turned his back on her, Clonehead stuck her middle finger up and left.

Later at night, John returned to his room but noticed that his door was unlocked; he proceeded inside to find Clonehead sitting on his bed. "Clonehead, what are you doing in my room? You shouldn't be breaking into other peoples rooms." John said while taking off his jacket and placing it on the coat hanger.

"Oh, I was just waiting for you. I can't spend a day without being around you." She sarcastically said while playing with her skirt. John saw through her lies, "Apparently, you are supposed to be in the Fungeons. What did you do this time?" he questioned her but as he turned around, he saw as Clonehead took off her leggings, all while showing a seductive smirk.

"That's not important. Why don't you sit down and enjoy yourself? We have a lot to talk about." She constantly lifted her skirt to flash herself off with John watching in disappointment.

"You're trying to seduce me. Let me tell you two things, Clonehead: I have a girlfriend, and she does a better job of seducing me than you." John said to annoy her as she sighed and put her leggings back on.

"Ok, fine. Just listen to me. Why not join me in taking this dump for ourselves? We can teach these suckers who the real superiors are, not that glitch-bitch." Clonehead came out with it as she reached for her jacket pocket.

"Vanellope was right, you are a disrespectful menace. Whatever you're planning to do to Sugar Rush, I will not let you proceed with it." John said as he was about to grab Clonehead. "I knew you would say that." She pulled a smoke bomb out of her pocket and threw it at John; the smoke bomb was from Gloyd's box of pranks that she took before escaping earlier.

The bomb blinded John temporarily, giving Clonehead a chance to put her boots back on and escape the castle yet again.

* * *

The next day, Vanellope has issued an order for Clonehead's arrest; John, Vanellope and Candlehead were at Chrometech with Doktor, sitting in the briefing room. "We need to figure out how to erase Clonehead from existence." Vanellope said, "We can't, she shares the same code as Candlehead."

"It's almost as if Clonehead is the negative side of Candlehead." John stated, "So what are you getting at?" Vanellope questioned John's thought.

"If we can somehow merge the two together, we won't need to worry about her being around anymore." Doktor then came to an idea and brought the three with him into his lab.

"I have been working on this for a while now; it has similar properties to the idea of merging two objects together. I just need to add a few things to it to make it operational." The three watch as Doktor began adding the final pieces together; "Alright, now all we need to do is find Clonehead and bring her here."

Gunfire was heard in the distance, John went to investigate when all the three saw was bodies flying past the doors and John backing up to get his armor and sword. It was Clonehead piloting Metal Gear Rex when she came to the lab with the mech.

"I will kill you all!" Clonehead yelled, attempting to break through the walls to get into the lab; Doktor increased his speed to fix the machine. "Get on that platform, little one." He commanded Candlehead who ran up to it and waited while Vanellope hid behind some cover.

John, fully armored up, battled Clonehead, giving Doktor enough time to do his part. Rex was nothing compared to Excelsus as John easily torn the mech apart; "NO, NOT NOW!" Clonehead began smashing her hands on the controls out of frustration.

John got to Clonehead and pulled her out, she attempted to escape from his grasp but failed; she was placed on the same platform with Candlehead and a glass barrier came down to trap them inside.

Doktor flipped the switch and the two began floating until a bright light engulfed the room and blinded the others.

When the light dimmed, Candlehead was the only one inside the machine when she came back down from the air; the barrier raised up and Candlehead fell. "Candlehead!" John and Vanellope came to her aid.

She awoken and was alright; "Yay, Clonehead is finally gone!" Vanellope said to make everyone happy; "Who's hungry? I know a new pizza place that just opened up." John suggested.

"Yeah, I'm up for it." Candlehead got back up. The three were just about to leave when the machine Doktor had made broke down; the three looked at Doktor as he looks at the destruction of his recent invention. "Ah, what the hell, like it was going to be used for anything."

Afterwards, Doktor joins the three as they leave the lab.

* * *

 **What are your thoughts about Clonehead, the negative side of Candlehead? I originally didn't intend for the seductive scene until the last minute, I added it in to expand on Clonehead's personality as an evil, immature girl.**

 **I'm making all upload dates to Friday now; hopefully the next few chapters will become important as the last chapter did and it will relate to the final few chapters.**


	23. Attack of the Fifty Foot Minty

**Thanks to a calculation error made by Tails, his shrink machine causes Minty to grow 50ft in size.**

* * *

Tails was in his workshop constructing a new machine while John and Minty were also there; John was lying on the couch, reading a magazine and Minty sat and watch Tails invent the machine.

"Once this machine is finished, it will make stealth missions a breeze with the ability to shrink people down to the size of ants, all while retaining their physical strength. I got to ask you John, why is your friend here?" Tails asked out of curiosity.

"She just wanted to tag along. Hopefully, your invention will get approved by Dok once he sees it." John said while still reading the magazine. Minty couldn't take her eyes of Tails as he worked, she would try to help out whatever way she can.

"Annnd finished!" Tails rubbed his forehead after all of the hard work, admiring his work while he can. "John, do you want to test it out?"

John looked for a few seconds before returning to his magazine, "Not now, thanks." Minty got up and walked in front of the machine; "I wanna try!" Tails couldn't decide whether or not to go along with it.

"You sure you want to do this?" he asked with a concerned tone, "Yeah, shrink me!" Minty yelled in excitement. "Alright, here goes nothing." He flipped the switch and shortly after, the machine began making noises and the beam was glowing blue.

It fired at Minty for a few seconds until it ceased fire; Minty was still her normal size when she and Tails looked confused. "Do you feel any different?" Tails asked, "No."

Tails then looked down at her right hand and notices that it grew twice as big, Minty was freaking out when all of a sudden, she began growing in size. It took John a minute to realise what was going on and by that time, Minty was already gigantic; she constantly looked down at the two and was panicking when her head broke through the roof.

"I don't understand, everything was set up as planned. How did the effects reverse themselves?" Tails said as he searched into his machine and saw something wrong. "Oh, the settings were set to increase. This is going to be difficult."

Minty tried to sit down inside the workshop but due to her size, she began crushing many of the furniture up against the wall, including John who moaned in pain. "Would you mind!" he yelled.

Minty moved to free John but was panicking even more as she couldn't sit anywhere; "Go outside, we'll bring the machine out." Tails informed her.

Outside the workshop, Tails continued to work on fixing the problem with his machine; John was still reading his magazine despite the problem with Minty, who was watching Tails fix the machine. "I will promise you that I will fix this and return you back to your normal size." Tails turned to face Minty. "Really?" she asked, "Yeah, you can count on me!"

* * *

In the far distance, Metal was hovering in the air and watching the three; he was impressed with the idea of a ray that would increase one to large sizes. Afterwards, he flew away, back to Eggman's base which he now owns.

Metal has been running a lot of work around the base since Eggman has been apprehended at isn't allowed to leave for anything other than gaming hours. Metal gathers as many badniks before heading back out of the base.

"And done." Tails has finished fixing the machine; Minty came over to it to be shrunk back down to size. When Tails activates the machine, laser fire came shooting down at the machine, damaging it.

"Not again..." the three saw Metal above them and a horde of badniks in the distance; "This is not good." John said as he backed up into Minty's leg. Tails ran back inside his workshop and came back out with a toolbox.

"I have an idea but I need you to do something. Carry that machine in your hand; John, get on top of your friend's head and I will guide us." Tails instructed the two as he flew himself onto Minty's shoulder while she picked up his machine and placed John on the candy wrapper bow on her head. After that, Minty began running which she made quite a distance with each step.

As the aerial and ground badniks got close, John would shoot them with the laser cannon built-in his cybernetic arm; Tails continuously pointed different directions for Minty to go to. She would appear unharmed after getting shot at by laser fire and rockets.

There was a large rock in the way which Minty jumped over; jumping caused John to lose his balance and fall of Minty's head, he luckily held on tightly to the bottom part of her skirt while still trying to fire back. Upon arriving at the mountains, Tails told Minty to head straight in while he shot two target markers which caused traps to appear and destroy the robots as well as blocking the path into the center of the mountains.

Metal stopped when he lost sight and commanded his army to begin a search for the three.

"We should be fine here for now." Tails said when he descended to the ground and began repairs on the machine; Minty sat down and curled up when she began crying, "It's my fault this happened to me..." her tears were really big and John was underneath them when he had to quickly spawn a shield with his arm.

John approached Tails as he stood with a disturbed expression, "Why is she crying? John, do something." John just stood there when he had a flashback.

* * *

 **FLASHBACK**

One time at Chrometech, Tails was asked by Doktor to assist him in creating a new machine; while they were at it, Minty was watching from outside the lab, constantly staring at Tails as he worked.

John came along and saw Minty; it seems that Minty doesn't even know John was there so he peaked into the room while standing behind her to see what she was looking at. After realising, he finally spoke up, "Minty, can I borrow you for a second?"

Minty snapped back to reality and quickly turned to look to John to respond, "Um, sure." She said cautiously; they walked into an empty room when John sat down and Minty became confused.

"So, I see you are taking an interest in constructing machines." John sarcastically said, "I, uh… yeah… I like seeing things… being put together." She said, hoping John would believe her; the room fell in silence for a few second.

"I know you were watching Tails, you obviously like him." Her cheeks began glowing as she looked embarrassed but also constantly looking down and rolling her eyes around.

"I-I don't know what you're t-talking about." Her constant blushing wouldn't help when trying to cover up the truth; "Why do I always get myself into this? There's nothing to worry about, you're not the only one who had a secret crush. I had to deal with this with Gloyd and Jubileena."

Still, Minty was blushing and nervous, "You wouldn't tell him, will you?" she asked, "Minty, you should know me by now. I don't give away secrets." He informed her.

Two minutes have passed and they leave the room; Tails was walking by when he gave them a wave, causing Minty to blush even further with a smirk.

 **FLASHBACK END**

* * *

Minty was still crying and Tails was panicking more; John guided Tails away from Minty and told him something important. "I think I might know what will work. She has feelings for you, show her the same feelings."

"How am I supposed to do that? I'm no good with relationships." Tails exclaimed as he became more nervous and slightly blushing. "If you have a better plan, I'm all ears, but you have to do this, for her. She loves you Tails." John told him in which he took a deep breath and flew up to her shortly afterwards.

"Erm, Minty? It's not your fault that you ended up like this. It's my fault, I shouldn't have let you test out my invention like that." She slowly stopped crying to look at him, but still felt sad; "I also know that you like me so I want to say something: I love you."

Tails kissed her on the cheek and soon after that, she hugged him tightly despite her enormous size; John stood and watched them while they hugged.

An hour later and Tails has successfully completed the repairs to his machine; just when he was about to shrink Minty down to size, the rocks covering the entrance blew up and in came an army of robots along with Metal.

"Tie them down! Don't let them escape!" Metal demanded as John and Tails had their hands tied up and Minty was forced down with a lot of ropes; John and Tails were being taken out of the area.

"MINTY!" Tails yelled as he attempted to break out of capture but had a butt of a gun smashed into his stomach to knock him down; Minty became enraged when she saw Tails getting hurt so she too attempted to break out.

"Hold her down!" Metal himself panicked as he witnessed Minty's intense strength as she was able to break every single rope holding her down and eventually save John and Tails.

John used his arm to generate a gun to fight back while Tails uses an arm cannon to shoot at each robot; Minty took so many shots to the body from bullets, lasers and missiles and it still wouldn't harm her.

When there were less robots left, Metal tried to escape but was held in place by Minty; Tails took the opportunity to disable Metal and ultimately reprogramming him into becoming a mindless assistant.

"Is it over?" John came out of a pile of destroyed robots; the three came together and looked around them at the robots that were all over the place.

"I think so." Metal just stood there, not even responding to anything. Minty was standing in front of the machine when the laser that got fired out of the machine and shrunk her down to size. "I'm normal again!" Minty ran and dived onto Tails and bombarded his face with kisses.

The two spent their time together before she and John had to leave as it was getting dark in the arcade; Minty and Tails shared one last kiss before they left.

"I really love him!" Minty constantly told John who couldn't help but laugh every time she said it along the way to Sugar Rush.

* * *

 **It's hard for me to believe that I only have two chapters left to make it to the 25** **th** **chapter, possibly the halfway point of this fanfiction run.**

 **Anyway, please write in the reviews what you think about this chapter and I hope to hear from you guys soon. Adios!**


	24. Nothing Personal

**Tessa asks John to begin his search for the man that appears in her dreams; John begins his search from interrogating a dangerous enemy.**

* * *

One day, John and Tessa were sitting in the briefing room alone, playing chess to pass the time; "Checkmate!" Tessa yelled as she pulled off the winning move.

"You're getting there, want another round?" John asked as he gather all of his pieces from the side, Tessa did the same before she nodded her head; they were placing the pieces back onto the board when Tessa looked behind John.

"Wait, I know him." She said when the big monitor, displaying the feed of each surveillance camera, looks down at the cell of inmates. It quickly cut off and then shown another room when John got up to put it back to the brig area; Tessa also got up to get closer.

She took the controls and zoomed in to one of the cells which belonged to X; "I have seen him somewhere before, I'm sure of it." She continues to zoom in until X's face was clear on the screen for them both to see; "I can interrogate him for information leading to the description of your suspect."

Doktor came walking into the briefing room at the perfect timing when John has just began leaving, "Dok, set up an interrogation with X, we might have something." John instructed the German scientist who gave John a confused expression, "Ok…?"

* * *

Moments later, John sat in the interrogation room, X wasn't scared, he was strangely smiling.

"We were given a description of someone with the following on this note, what do you know about this man?" John questioned X while he shown him a note of all the things Tessa told him about the man.

Doktor and Tessa were standing outside the room, watching through the window at the on-going interrogation.

"Hmm, if you're attempting to find this man, you don't have any luck here. I haven't seen B in... oh, twelve years." X said, he wasn't hesitating to give John information.

"B?" John confusingly said, X sat up properly in his seat and took out a hidden cigar which he lit along with the use of a mini-lighter within his pocket. "Listen kid, I don't know what shit you plan to pull off. B isn't your typical boss; of course, you just love showing off."

"What does that suppose to mean?" John still looked confused and so did the other two behind the glass; "Apartment A64, Sim's City. That's all I have to say." X continue to smoke his cigar before two guards came in to transport him back to his cell.

As John walked out of the room, Doktor appeared to his right; "Did you get any of that?" John asked. "Not until he mentioned that last bit."

Tessa slowly came into John's view from behind Doktor; "Are you going to that place that the man told you?" She asked, "It's our best and only shot. Keep me on comms." John walked away as the two gave each other a strange look.

* * *

Sometime later, John was just outside an apartment within Sim's City when he was patching through to Doktor over the codec; "Alright Dok, I'm here. How should I proceed?"

"Just proceed into the building and head up to the sixth floor and find door four; once you're there, use your enhanced augment scanner on your cybernetic arm. This will allow you to scan for any sign of live or AI on the opposite end of even the thickest layer of walls."

John proceeded in to the building to the sixth floor; he approached the door and entered but saw nothing of interest in the apartment. John expected the place to be a run-down home; "Dok, there's no one here."

John inspect the place to find anything relevant but found nothing of interest; "Who the hell are you?!" A guy stood behind John when he got up to face him, the man readied himself in a fighting stance and took John on; John made a swinging punch with his left hand to the guy's face, knocking him off balance.

The man quickly shot up and threw a punch to which John evades and counters with another punch to the face, this time with his right which was a lot harder than the other; the punch resulted in a knock-out.

After the fight, John called for backup to bring the guy back to Chrometech.

* * *

Upon returning, the man was placed into a cell separate from everyone else; he was still unconscious. The others waited until he woke up to begin a interrogation.

John was once again in the room and he was interrogating the man; "A suspect of ours claims that you might know something about a man known as Mr. B. Who is he and where is he?" John questioned the man who gave John such an evil look.

"Why should I answer to a punk like you?" The guy had no fear until the next moment; "Because if you don't, I will beat it out of you; I will torture you however I see fit. I could just pull out every teeth in your mouth and every nail in your fingers and toes; I can slowly crush your hand, feet or head in a vice; any way will work."

Sweat became visible and the man nervously shook until he were to cooperate, "Alright, I'll tell you. B is my boss, he use to work for a major corporation run by countless number of syndicate bosses until he left to work on his own accords. Taking him head on is a stupid idea but his location is at this location." The man wrote the location down on a piece of paper and gave it to John; afterwards, the man was taken to a cell where he would stay for a few days.

John was at his locker, preparing himself for his upcoming mission to infiltrate the hideout of Mr. B.

He closes his locker and looked to the right to see Tessa standing there, watching him; "Are you going to find that man this time?" She said with her arms crossed behind her back and constantly raising and lowering on her toes.

"This time, B will be brought to justice, whatever it takes." John was walking out of the room when Tessa magically appeared in front of him.

"Can I come?" She asks, a small bruise appears on her arm after using her ability; "Are you out of your mind?"

"I can be helpful." Tessa still continues to plead until John gave in, "Fine, you can come, but you better stay close to me and do EXACTLY as I say. Got it?" John said in a serious tone; Tessa nodded her head and she followed John out to a vehicle to be dropped off.

John and Tessa sat within a large vehicle that also had a lot of soldiers inside; they all stare at Tessa and begin questioning each other to why she is here, making Tessa nervous.

The vehicle stop a distance away from a warehouse; everyone inside the vehicle were listening in on the codec to Doktor giving instructions. "Attention, the plan is as follows: John will infiltrate the hideout and will find the target, once John gives the signal, the rest of you will make entry and apprehend the target. Let's roll out!"

John was the first to exit the vehicle, rather than stealthily sneak in, he and Tessa approached the gate in which the guard detected them and held them up at gun point.

"Stay where you are! Don't come any closer!" The guard yelled down to them; the two raised their hands in the air. Shortly after, the guard received a radio call to which he appears confused, "But sir, should we trust them?"

Tessa became more nervous while John kept a cool head; "You're the boss. Alright, move on in, and don't go anywhere." The guard directed the two in when more appeared and guided them inside to a large room filled with crates of weapons and drugs and desks filled with money.

"Wait here." The guard stopped them and left them by going up a set of stairs onto a walkway and to a room; "What should we do?" Tessa quietly asked John, "Just stay calm and follow my lead."

After a minute has passed, a voice overtook the entire building, "John McCoy, what an honor to meet the man in the flesh." It was Mr. B, he came out with a cane and came across the walkway before coming down the stairs to face John.

"Forgive my guards, everyone must be on guard around here." He signals the guards to lower their weapons. "What service can I do for you?" B was being somewhat nice despite his reputation as a crime lord; "It's you… It can't be…" B looked at Tessa and took a few steps back after remembering her.

"Well, well, well, ain't this a reunion, little ol' Tess has finally returned to her master." B announced to which everyone in the room began laughing; "That's the guy who is in my nightmares." Tessa revealed to John.

"Well, now that we have got the establishing shot out of the way, I want you to turn yourself in." John demanded and the others continued to laugh.

"And what will happen if I refuse?" B questioned what he thought was John's stupidity, not realising that he had pressed a concealed button on his cybernetic arm which began sending a signal. "Then I will kill you."

Many Chrometech soldiers burst through the windows and all hell broke loose; John quickly picked up Tessa and hid behind a crate. "Stay here until we clear things up here."

John ran back out and drew his sword before slicing down some thugs; Tessa watched from behind the crate as John sliced through many enemies flawlessly. She turned to the far right to see B holding a RPG and fires at the pillar next to John; "John, watch out!" Tessa cried to which by that time, the pillar began collapsing.

When John finally noticed, the pillar had already fell down and he was crushed underneath with half his body sticking out, John was unfortunately dying.

Tessa ran out to him to try and lift the pillar but was unable to, she began crying as John dies right in front of her. B and his men made a quick escape through the back and left the warehouse and any remaining Chrometech soldiers.

"What should I do…?" Tessa wiped the tears from her eyes when she then thought of a plan, "Could it work…?" She said to herself, she closed her eyes and by concentrating, she traveled back in time before John was crushed.

Upon returning, she could see B holding the RPG; "Not this time." Tessa ran out and shoved John out of the way of the collapsing pillar. John realised what has happened and got back up, "Thanks Tess." He saw as her skin appeared bruised badly all over as a result from using her ability.

"Just go after him." John saw B run out of the warehouse where he then gives chase; B made it to his vehicle and tried to open the doors but dropped his keys, "Shit."

Picking them up, he turned to see a fist coming towards him but instead smashed the window when B dodged John's punch. B took out a gun and shoots at John's face but he transforms his arm into a shield.

A few more shots before deciding to aim for the legs, John screams in pain and falls to the floor. "You could have just walked away from this, but you had to be the tough guy. It was I who tortured Tessa a few years ago before she escaped me; I always said that I will kill her when I find her, instead you brought her to me."

B revealed a katana hidden within the cane as he was standing above John, "Where should I strike first, the head or the heart?" He rhetorically asks as he raises the katana to stab.

A brick strikes B at the back of the head, stunning him, thanks to Tessa; B recovered and pulled the gun towards her, "You little bitch!"

John took the opportunity to grab the end of the katana and snap it off, using it to cut at his achilles tendon, causing B to fall to the floor as well where then John quickly stabbed the piece in his right shoulder and finally took his gun and fired at his head, killing him.

Tessa came to John's aid and waited with him until some soldiers came to help him; he was carried into the vehicle and brought back to Chrometech.

* * *

The following day, John was in a wheelchair until his legs have recovered from the bullet wounds that prevented him from walking. He encountered Tessa in the castle who has also recovered from the bruises from yesterday.

"Hey John, sorry about your legs." She sadly said; "No worries. Cheri said that I can't walk for a month until they heal. How are you this morning?" He politely asked.

"I feel much better now! This time, I slept well, knowing that the man is now gone from my nightmares." She informed him; "I forgot to thank you for that save. Did you travel back in time to do that?"

"Yeah. When I was there the first time, I tried to warn you about it but you were too late; the thing crushed you. It wasn't my first time saving someone's life with this power of mine." She said. "I'll be keeping an eye on how much you use with it; I don't want to imagine what will happen if you use too much." John informed her.

"Anyway, I heard there's a celebration going on at Chrometech after the success from last night, if you want to join?" John asked Tessa, she immediately agreed and followed John as he slowly pushed himself out of the castle, before Tessa decided to help him.

* * *

 **Finally I can get this chapter uploaded, I had to delay it for more than a week all thanks to college…**

 **By the end of this week, I promise that this will return to its Friday upload schedule; also, the sequel to my other Wreck-it Ralph fanfic, Pyrokinesis Candlehead, is now in development and should be up by the end of this story's run. Plus with my iPad working again, I will be up to date with the future chapters.**

 **This is S3AN06 signing off, adios.**


	25. Ditz Day

**When no one is available to hang around with, Candlehead goes on her own adventure to keep herself busy.**

* * *

On a random day in Sugar Rush, Candlehead laid on her bed with Spark beside her; she stared at the ceiling and had a blunt look on her face. Spark cuddled into her while Candlehead strokes it; "Why is it that today has to be the day when everyone is busy?"

Spark never reacted to her question, he just laid there and quickly fell asleep; Candlehead sighed in boredom. "Wait, I know what to do. If I can't find anyone to play with, I'll make my own adventure."

She got up and off her bed; making her way to the door before turning to see Spark fast asleep, "It would be best for me to not disturb him." She said to herself before leaving.

Outside the castle, Candlehead never stopped to talk to anyone until she made it to Game Central Station; she took the time to decide what game she should go to first. Candlehead however couldn't decide and was stumped until she heard two people nearby talking about something which caught her interest.

"Did you sign on to that racing competition they're having in Street Racer?" The first guy asked, "Yeah, the one with the $100,000 prize? Who do you think will win?" The other guy responded. "$100,000?" Candlehead whispered to herself.

"I din't know, but whoever does may just be the luckiest person around." The two left the area and a idea sprung up in Candlehead's mind.

She followed the two into Street Racer and found a sign-up sheet which only allowed game characters who are racers, regardless of age. Candlehead signed her name onto the sheet and soon after, her kart magically spawned next to her.

* * *

One hour has passed and the race was about to commence; there were up to ten racers, Candlehead included.

Two of the other racers were from the game Street Racer, Frank and Raphael; the countdown begins and after one, they were off. Candlehead was in seventh place at the beginning with a racer on her side.

The other racer attempts to ram her off the road and into a ditch, Candlehead picked up an item which was a sticky bomb and plan to use this to her advantage. Another racer came up on the opposite side and also made his attempt to ram her off; "Well, this is certainly unfair." Candlehead thought when the two constantly collided with her kart, smashing off parts in the process.

With the bomb at the ready, Candlehead stepped on the breaks to fall back a distance when the two were about to ram into her, instead they hit each other; she then threw the bomb at one of them and speeded past them, watching as their cars explode.

"Alright!" She yelled happily and with excitement while stepping on it.

Her next opponents came into view as she was turning a corner, there were three of them and they were breaking away due to a split in the road that lead into a cave. Two of them went right while the other went left, Candlehead followed her.

Though she did not plan to attack her unless she tried to do something, Candlehead continued to catch up until she came into view.

The two paths connected at the end and the two other racers came back into their sights; another one had joined and assisted the latter two when they planned to crush Candlehead; "No, why me?!" She cried when they all began ramming into her kart one at a time.

The fourth racer threw a few spike balls ahead which the front most racer goes over them, he rolls out of the track, bringing the other one to Candlehead's right with him.

"Take this!" The female yelled as she threw a power-up to Candlehead to use, it was a power-up with identical properties to the Sticky Slick from Sugar Rush; the female readied a secret power-up (not from Street Racer), "Time to use the Death Nuke."

Candlehead timed her throw and manage to stick the third racer into place; the female then threw the Death Nuke, a small nuke that was the size of a hand, into the sticky substance and the two pushed on the pedal out of the cave as the exit was dead ahead.

"Oh crud…" The racer said as the nuke was mere seconds from exploding.

When the two got out of the cave, Candlehead look back and watched as the entire mountain blew up along with a mushroom cloud, "OH MOD! THAT WAS AWESOME!"

The two sped up, they team up and took on every other racer in the race but unfortunately for Candlehead, her partnership with this female racer was short lived as she span out of control and fell out of the race.

It was down to Candlehead vs Raphael as they were on the final stretch; they kept bumping into each other, ripping their vehicles apart. Two power-up capsules came into view and they picked up a capsule each; Candlehead gained a shield power-up while Raphael gained the Death Nuke.

Out of the random, Raphael collided with Candlehead's kart, reached in to it and hijacked it to spin her around to which she tried to regain control. Raphael then quickly threw the nuke into her kart and Candlehead threw it out after he drove on ahead at a hast speed.

The nuke detonated, causing a huge explosion which engulfed Candlehead inside the mushroom cloud.

Raphael thought he was in the clear as he looked back and saw only the cloud; he was laughing in absolute madness until he took a second glance and saw a green ball of light emitting from the cloud until it emerges at a super fast speed. It was Candlehead using the shield power-up to protect herself from harm and the explosion gave her such a boost that she speeded past Raphael who stopped his car and gasped; eventually Candlehead won first place.

"We have a winner: Candlehead! Winner of the $100,000 prize!" The announcer stated over the PA system; Candlehead was approached by the crowd and all of the other racers, they lifted her in the air and celebrated her victory.

Raphael came over and had his jaw hanging down, "That was sick, kid! You really know how to race!" He fist-bumped her and the female racer came over and removed her helmet.

"Nice move, kid. What's your name and where are you from?" She asked, "It's Candlehead, I'm from Sugar Rush." She happily informed her. "I might come by for a real challenge with you some day. My name is Helena Anderson."

Afterwards, the two spent most of the hour talking to each other before Candlehead decided to leave.

* * *

Returning to Game Central Station, Candlehead laid eyes on another game: Mortal Kombat, and heads straight in, "This should be fun."

As she makes it inside the game, the first thing she saw was a Fatality being performed by Sub-Zero on Johnny Cage; the instant sight of blood and gore caused Candlehead to immediately back out of the game as well as nearly puking her insides out.

She spent the time given to clear her mind from what she had just witnessed; getting something to eat and drink shortly afterwards before continuing her game-jumping adventures.

"Five Nights at Freddy's? Sounds like a fun fast-food game." Candlehead stood outside the game as she read the sign before going in; she was immediately placed in the seat in the security room and was confused by the setup of the game.

The phone to her side rang and she heard a voice, "Hello? Hello, hello? So you're the new guy?" The man on the opposite end had said, Candlehead picked up the phone and tried responding to him but every time she says something, he interrupts her. "The animatronics have been acting all weird recently, some reports have claimed seeing suspicious activity during the night; all of our previous night guards had quit after the first night."

Candlehead finally realised that the phone call was actually a recorded message left by the Phone Guy and was disappointed, yet disturbed as she looked on the monitor at the three animatronics in the back-stage area staring at her.

"What do I do?" She confusingly asks herself as she saw two buttons on each side of the desk, one for the lights outside the room and the other two for the doors on each side.

Upon looking through the monitor, she noticed that one of the animatronics were missing; sweat began pouring down her face and she slowly became more and more nervous.

Though nothing happened for the first few minutes, she looks into the monitor and fails to notice that Bonnie was right at the door and now in the office as she pulls down the monitor and was jump scared when she started crying.

Rather than kill her, the animatronics instead treated her to cake to calm her down before allowing her to leave; Candlehead returned to Game Central Station, shivering along the way, "I'm never going back there again."

* * *

She thought to try out one more game and that was Minecraft.

The blocky environment causes her to become confused and without a second thought, she turned around to leave, but was unable to do so. A force field prevented her from leaving and a message appeared 'To leave Minecraft, you must defeat the Ender Dragon and bring the egg here.'

She moaned sadly before exploring the land; she encounters a individual that was mute but knew what she was saying, his name was Steve.

"Hello, mister? Can you help me? I want to leave but the game won't let me; I have to bring some egg to the exit." She told him, Steve placed a sign down with text explaining that he is after the same egg as she is.

The two form a partnership and Steve taught Candlehead the basics of how Minecraft works. By day five (which is around an hour), Candlehead had the tools and weapons she needed to gather the resources to become stronger and she did just that on her own; finding diamonds in caves with such luck.

By day 11, they had all of the Eyes of Ender they needed to activate the End portal; they went in and found themselves in the End where the dragon flew around.

Candlehead was nervous at first, but became more confident to progress onwards alongside Steve. While Steve distracted the dragon, Candlehead was tasked with using her bow and arrows to target the Ender Crystals on the obsidian towers around the place.

Two of them were protected by a cage and she took out a few Ender Pearls, "This better work." She threw it at the first tower and teleported to the top when she then broke through the fence and destroyed the crystal, not expecting an explosion to send her onto the other tower instead.

"Ugh… Guess I got lucky… Ok last one." In her inventory, she had some TNT and immediately thought of a plan, place some of it down and blow it up with flint and steel.

While the TNT was set to blow, Candlehead ran off the tower and use the Ender Pearl to save herself from the fall.

Steve dealt some damage to the dragon before it shot an acid ball at him which the explosion sent him a distance away; "STEVE!" Candlehead cried.

He wasn't responding, Candlehead picked up his sword and used it to deal the final few blows to the dragon before using her bow and arrows to kill it with a well aimed shot. The dragon slowly raised in placed and disappeared after a flash and drops a lot of experience, but Candlehead went over to Steve to aid him.

Steve was already on half a heart and had nothing in the hunger bar; he died almost instantly and Candlehead was saddened by his death, though she still remembers that he will regenerate.

She took the egg and returned to the Overworld to place the egg on the pedestal to disactivate the field and return to Sugar Rush.

It was getting late and she ran into John in the castle who still was in a wheelchair; "Where were you today? We've been looking all over for you." John said when Candlehead came through the doors.

"I was out game-jumping. You wouldn't believe what happened to me today; I went racing in a competition and won first place and $100,000 as a prize!" She held out all of the money that was a big roll in her pocket.

"Well, it's good to see that you know how to entertain yourself." John stated; instead, Candlehead followed him throughout the castle for the remainder of the day, constantly blabbing on about her adventurous day.

* * *

 **About two different scrapped stories were combined here into one story: one with the plot being similar but instead involves more of the Legend of Zelda while the other idea is with the group being trapped in Minecraft.**

 **This is it, the halfway point to A Gamer's Life (or most likely past the halfway point); as tradition will have it, on with the bloopers.**

 **BLOOPERS:**

Chapter 21 – Metallic Gear:

During the fight between John and the disguised guard, John was to disarm the man from using the wrench, he however done it too fast and hard to hit the prop in the guy's face. John apologised when the medical team came on to check for any injuries.

Chapter 22 – Clonehead

The guard spotted Clonehead inside the Rex and demanded her to get out of the mech; Clonehead attempted to but got her foot stuck and fell over and out of the cockpit along with the entire filming crew laughing and so did the guard. Clonehead got back up, "I'm alright."

Chapter 23 – Attack of the Fifty Foot Minty:

As Minty jumped over the large rocks in the way, John fell off her head and was told to grab onto her skirt to save himself from the fall; he failed to and landed when he groaned in pain, "That, was not intentional…"

Chapter 24 – Nothing Personal:

The surveillance camera that appeared on the monitor was showing the many rooms and areas throughout Chrometech, one of which was a small room where a few extras were partying and all John and Tessa could do was burst out into laughter.

Chapter 25 – Ditz Day:

After Candlehead had successfully stuck the last racer in place while in the tunnel, Helena threw the Death Nuke too hard and it flew over the stuck racer's head and into the darkness below the track; "Oh, my bad." Helena remarked on her fail.


	26. Trial & No Error

**John and a few friends are kidnapped and must escape from their captives.**

* * *

"Ugh, my head…" John awoken within a small cell, looking around to find nothing but what was outside the cell; he noticed that all he was wearing was his underwear and was also missing his cybernetic arm.

"What the hell happened?" He asked himself, he closed his eyes and tried to remember, but while trying to do that, footsteps were heard outside his cell.

Moving towards the cell door, John could see a man, he looks a little old but wore a outfit similar to that of Russian battle gear; "It's about time you awoken." He spoke in a fluent Russian accent.

"Who the hell are you? Where am I?" John questioned the old Russian; "I am Ivan Kozlov. Where you are is described by one word: Hell." Ivan picked up a small remote and pressed a button, revealing on the screen behind him three other cells with three other captured victims to which John was shocked to see.

The three were James, Lucy and Candlehead; they were stripped of their clothing like John and are also unconscious.

"Soon they will awaken and will realise the hard way that they too are poisoned like you." Ivan revealed before turning to walk out of the room; "You poisoned us?! What did we ever do to upset your worthless ass?"

Ivan stopped for a few seconds to glance and smirk before continuing to leave; John slowly began remembering what happened to him prior to this.

* * *

 **FLASHBACK**

John was patrolling through Game Central Station when he turned to Tapper's after a long day of work; he sat down on a stool and was served a drink while sitting alone in silence.

Shortly, a customer came in and sat down besides John but was silent and never spoke a single word; he also got a drink and at the same time, he took out a book and began reading it.

While things were quiet at the present time, John became irritated when the man that sat next to him began acting weirdly until a fight between two random customers broke out behind them to which John got off his stool and made an attempt to break up the fighting between the two.

The man quickly drugged John's drink while he wasn't looking and when John returned to his seat after breaking up the fight, he took a drink.

Around an hour and a half later, John began feeling a bit dizzy and eventually felt like puking when he proceeded to the restrooms and passed out just outside them. The man came over and carried him out of the game to some Russian soldiers.

 **FLASHBACK END**

* * *

"I got to get out of here and find the others. But how?" John took another look around his cell and found nothing of use until he saw the air vent on the wall with the cover in place, but unscrewed. This lead John to a lot of confusion but regardless, he made a quick plan.

Though he only had one arm to work with, John did have a bed in the cell which was high enough for him to reach up and to remove the cover as well as pulling himself up and into the vent itself.

"Well this is cold. Why do I always get myself in this mess?" He looked down the long and dark vent before crawling through it.

In another cell, James woke up and immediately realised that he was in a cell; he made a quick look out of the cell to see if there was any guards around before plotting a escape plan.

"What's with the boxes?" He asked himself when he saw a pile of small boxes stacked in an odd way; after moving the boxes, he saw a hole in the floor which lead out of the cell. Wasting no time, James entered the hole and found himself in a large room with a handgun on a table and a set of targets in the distance which were cardboard cutouts.

"Welcome, James. I have been waiting for you to awaken; in order to escape from here, you must prove your skill as a marksman." Ivan said over the loudspeaker, all to confuse James.

He picked up the gun and aimed at the cutouts which were different people, some were even enemies he previously fought; they were a distance away and he would have to carefully aim and fire at each one, all while saving the bullets.

After each target destroyed, the remaining targets would begin to move and even speed up overtime. The final target was a cutout of an innocent civilian to which he hesitated to shoot. He finally made the shot but the bullet missed and hit the wall behind the cutout.

The door at the back opened and James was allowed to leave; "Well done, you show honor and dignity. Proceed onwards to your next challenge and take the gun, you will need it." Ivan said on the PA; James moved into the next room when a monitor was in view, showing the current status of each captive.

"Guess I'm not the only one here then…"

While she was asleep, Candlehead began sucking on her thumb until she shivered from the cold air; she shot up and quickly removed her thumb from her mouth.

"Where am I? Why is it so cold in here?" She questioned herself out loud and felt the top of her head to realise that her hat is missing, "Where's my precious candle?!" She was more worried about her candle than the fact that she was also missing her clothes except her panties.

"Candlehead?" Sounded a familiar voice; Candlehead looked through the bars on the cell door down the hall and saw Lucy, she too was in her panties and bra.

"Lucy, you too?" They were a few feet away, no one else in sight except for two monitors outside the cells, one on each. In Candlehead's cell, there was a table on the wall opposite the door; Lucy had a bed but no sheet or anything else.

"What should we do?" Candlehead asks; "I don't know. Hang on, what's that?" Lucy turned to see something small stuck in a gap within the bed, she took it out and found it to be a piece of paper.

"What is it?" Candlehead became intrigued as Lucy opened it and read out what it says, "By now, you stand; next to you, you sit; below… You crawl?"

They both became confused; Candlehead knew there was a table next to her but she decided to inspect what was under it. There was a loose cover which revealed a hole in the wall.

"Lucy, I can crawl through this hole. How will you get out?" She got back up to see Lucy still wondering around in her cell; strangely, the door wasn't locked as on the outside, a light will indicate if the door was locked or unlocked via a red or green light and from what Candlehead could see, the door was unlocked. "Lucy, I think your door is unlocked."

She tries to open it and successfully manages to escape her cell; she came over to Candlehead, "Try going through that hole and see where it will take you, I will go through that door. Hopefully no one is behind it."

Candlehead then crawled through the gap and disappeared out of sight; Lucy slowly approaches the door and opens it to see what was on the other side before moving on.

Lucy found a active monitor which revealed John's location, he was pushing heavy objects around with one hand to get through; "I need to find John." She said as she ran off down a hallway.

Candlehead crawled until she fell through a hole into a room but luckily landed on a soft mat; the room she landed in was filled with candles, over two hundred candles lit.

"So you made it to this room. I know your love for candles which is also your weakness; to escape, blow every candle out." Ivan said on the PA. Candlehead nervously but her lip as she stared at the large number of candles.

She came close to one of them and sweat slowly dripped off her; she took a deep breath and blew one out and took her time to do it to the second.

By the third candle however, she turned completely red, tears ran out of her eyes as she stood in place for a minute, not moving a muscle.

"I'M SO SORRY MY CHILDREN!" She screamed at the top of her lungs and ran at a super fast speed, blowing every candle out; the door opened as she ran out the room as fast as possible.

She continued down the hallway at a fast pace until she bumped into someone and fell to the floor. "Please don't hurt me!" She cried while not looking; "Me hurting you?" To her delight, it was John.

"JohnIhadahorribledayIhadtobetraymykindandohmymod!" She began mumbling and crying while hugging into John tightly; "Hey, there's more important things at stake here. Each one of us are poisoned, so we need to stick together to escape." He informed her.

"But my candles…" She still cried to which John slapped his forehead. "Let's just get the hell out of here." They moved down the hallway into a room which was filled with puzzles, "Great…"

Lucy has just finished one of her puzzles which were a list of riddles that pushed her knowledge to the limit; she encounters James who nearly shot her.

"Don't shoot!" She yelled; James recognised her voice and lowered his gun to approach Lucy. "Sorry, I thought it was that Ivan guy." James stated, "Ivan?" She said, confused; "Some Russian who is responsible for kidnapping us. We need to find the others before we can escape, as well as finding our stuff 'cause seeing you with no clothes on is a bit… distracting."

Lucy looked down at herself and embarrassingly chuckles. A door on their side opens up in which John and Candlehead appear with James readying his gun beforehand.

"Oh, is it good to finally see you guys. I have terrible news, we're all slowly dying from a poison." The two panic but regain their concentration on the matter at hand; "My candle!" Candlehead said as she peaked into a room through the window.

The three also look through to see all of their stuff along with four antidotes for their poison. "How the hell are we going to get in there?" James thought to which the sound of Ivan voice was heard on the PA system, "That will be easy. All you have to do is reveal your biggest secret, just one deep secret."

The four stood in absolute silence, not wanting to admit their secret to the others; James stepped forward and made the sacrifice, "I think Cheri is the most beautiful woman I have ever seen in my life. There, I said it!"

The door opened and James rushed in before anyone else, with the three in tow left confused.

They put on their clothes and drank the antidotes and stick together in attempt to escape; they enter the final room which is a large room with old Russian tanks in, though they seemed to be out of commission.

"Seeing that you have passed my challenges, I will offer you your freedom." Ivan finally said as the main doors opened and the four were allowed to leave.

"That was oddly generous from an A-hole. Why kidnap us and then force us into making our way through puzzles with a slow active poison killing us just to tell us we could leave?" John questioned the logic out of all this.

"No clue, but we will look into this but for now, let's just focus on getting back to HQ." James said as the group walked away from the facility.

* * *

Later at night, Ivan had enter a secret underground base to which he sat down at a table full of villains; "I have all of their attributes recorded, we will use this to our advantage."

"Excellent. Once we have the final few 'gifts' in our hands, we shall commence the final stage in our goal." A hidden figure said while sitting at the far end of the table.

"Ey but, what about that little punk kid who've been messin' with us for quite some time now?" The same boss from last time who had his fortunate escape from John, thanks to Shi who is also present, are also at the meeting.

"Well, I guess it's time to let our new member have some fun, but for now, we move forward with our plans." The one sitting at the end of the table stood up and is none other than Shiva who released a evil smirk.

* * *

 **I'll admit, this chapter bored me during development to the point where I had nothing to go on with; I had about a week or two to myself as a break from fanfiction writing but I am back and will be sticking around until the end of this story.**


	27. Lending A Hand

**John takes on the mission to find Cecilio Franco, the boss who hired Shi as a bodyguard, and bring him in.**

* * *

John was finishing off a practise run in VR, he took on a obstacle course mixed with fighting some clones of himself.

While packing up his equipment, John was approached by a random guard; "The boss wants to see you in his lab." The guard said before returning to post.

John had finished packing up his stuff and placed it into his locker and make a quick run to Doktor's lab but upon arrival, he wasn't there. John searched the lab until he gave up and decided to wait.

He sat on the table and waited, messing on with the items on the table out of boredom.

" _Please put that back where you found it._ " John immediately jumped in shock and slammed the item back into place and sat in a polite manner with his leg on top of the other and arms crossed, "Yes madam!"

It took him five seconds to realise what he was doing and became confused when he took another look around to see that no one was there; "Who said that?"

" _It was me._ " The voice became clear and sounded like a robotic female; one of the cybernetic arms automatically got up and moved towards John like a spider.

"You're… An arm?" John pointed out the obvious, he was slightly disturbed; the arm rested on the table beside him. " _I am A64, a cybernetic arm within the A-series, I was created to assist my owner._ "

"Yeah well, good luck to that guy." Soon after, Doktor came in and saw John; "I see you met A64, your next arm." He said, John caught on to what he said. "Say what now?" Doktor picked up the arm and tried to remove the one already on John.

"Wait, you're putting that on me? An arm that talks!" Regardless, Doktor removed his arm and put A64 on him.

"Trust me, you will like it. First, I would give it a name." Doktor advised the groaning kid, "Fine, the only name I can think of is Ally." John put the arm on himself and noticed its light weight compared to other models; "Wunderbar! A64 is the updated model to your series of cybernetic arms; equipped with a voice chip, as you now know, and has the intelligence of a super computer. The only thing now is for you two to get along."

John groaned yet again but then left the lab while Doktor tried to prevent himself from laughing; John left Chrometech and came across Candlehead who sat alone on a bench.

"Hey John, what's up?" She politely asked as John sat beside her, "I'd tell you but you better hear it for yourself." Candlehead tilted her head in confusion when John extended his right arm out and broke the silence. "Ally, this is Candlehead; Candlehead, this is Ally."

" _It is a pleasure to meet you._ " Candlehead gasped loudly and got off the bench, "Your arm talks?! Awesome!"

"Not awesome. I have to live with it now. Can you imagine how living with a talking arm feels like? And I only had it for ten minutes." John protested, he felt an electric shock afterwards, "Ow!"

" _Please do not make me upset, I can use my electric whip to hurt you._ " Candlehead giggles after watching John slowly lose his temper.

John grabbed the arm tightly as indication to stop the torture; John and Candlehead eventually left the area to return to the castle.

"So Candlehead, what do you think about the upcoming update to Sugar Rush?" He asked; "I don't know, all I know is that a new character is arriving soon and a few new tracks."

The two continued down the path until they reached the castle; inside, they encountered a problem. "I'm gonna kill you Gloyd!" Taffyta screamed at the top of her lungs, being held back by Rancis and Snowanna.

Vanellope got in between Taffyta and Gloyd when Taffyta tried to reach out for Gloyd who backed up in fear. "What the heck is going on here?" Candlehead came to Gloyd assistance while John turn Taffyta away, or tried to. "That rotten freak destroyed my kart after hijacking it and driving it into a wall!"

Taffyta eventually broke out after forcing her hand at John's face and pounced onto Gloyd, strangling him; some of Vanellope's guards had to restrain her and remover her from the room.

"Why the hell did you do that Gloyd?" John and Vanellope began interrogating him while the others stood behind them with their arms crossed.

"I don't know, I just had the urge to." Gloyd sheepishly smirked, John sighed heavily and Vanellope spoke up, "You know the rules Gloyd, damage to other's property will result in a two-day punishment in the Fungeons."

Another two guards came in and took him away while Vanellope and the others moved into the other room to see Taffyta, "Can't believe why I have to deal with this…" Vanellope said under her breath; John and Candlehead said no word and headed up the stairs to go into John's room.

"After a day like today, I think I deserve a nice, relaxing game." John fell onto his bed and sat up to pick up the controller and began playing a game when he handed Candlehead a controller. " _please take a short break every 45 minutes._ "

"Yeah yeah…" John ignorance cause another electric shock from the arm and a giggle from Candlehead.

* * *

The day continued on until night; while everyone were fast asleep, John would settle in his bed and beforehand, he would detach the arm and place it on the side of his bed. When morning arrived, John's arm made a sudden loud noise like a alarm clock and had jumped onto his face, causing John to fall out of bed in fright.

"Don't do that!" He removed the hand from his face and placed it on him while rubbing the back of his injured head; " _Time is 8:30AM, good morning, John._ "

John did his usual morning routine until he returned to Chrometech, all along with constantly being instructed and reminded of his daily schedule. While going through the hallway to the briefing room, John stopped by Cheri's small medic room after hearing giggling.

"Aww, these roses are beautiful, James. Thank you." John peaked into the room and saw James flirting with Cheri, she blushed so much as she was given a handful of roses; "Not as much as you are." James admitted to which he earned a kiss to the cheek; John quickly moved on towards the briefing room before A64 could reveal his position and ruin their moment.

The briefing room was empty, no one in sight so John decided to sit down and wait; he spun around on the chair out of boredom. " _Doktor is approaching the room._ " A64 informed Joh who immediately stopped himself and sat still as Doktor came in, rushing to the computer.

"Is everything ok, Dok?" John questioned when his attention came to the monitor, a satellite view one a specific target: Cecilio Franco.

"That's the guy who escaped on that boat a while back! Why are we just focusing on him now?" Shocked, John took a closer look and could see another familiar face near Cecilio: Shi. John clenched his left fist; " _Your heart rate has increased; please take a deep breath and relax._ "

James came rushing in a moment later while wiping his cheek; "Sorry I'm late. Hang on, that's…"

Doktor activated a recored clip that shows Cecilio torturing prisoners out in the open by beating them to a pulp while Shi and a few guards watch without showing remorse. "Cecilio has since disappeared from that day until recently when one of our satellites picked up this footage; as much as I like to think that luck is on our side, I believe he is aware that he is being watched."

"So what, do we go to this location and apprehend him?" James asked to which Doktor nodded; "Screw that, I just want to kill him for what he and his little bitch did to me." John interrupted.

"Oh because that plan so worked out well the last time." James became cocky and John shot up from the chair, "Well I don't see you losing an arm and nearly a head, Lover Boy!"

The two were about to fight one another until Doktor intervened, "That's enough, both of you! If you're going to argue, do it after the mission! I've been over the plans before getting here; James, you will infiltrate the facility through the air ducts on the northwest side and you will find the command post to disable communication and security. John, you will find Cecilio and WILL prevent him from escaping, which means CAPTURE, not KILL. Do I make myself clear?"

John annoyingly hums to answer before Doktor leaves the room with James in tow who passes by John and hits him with his shoulder. After they have left, John violently kicks the chair towards the wall out of stress and screams.

" _Master, if I may? You will find use in the following information towards the mission: Cecilio Franco, age: 51, nationality: Italian; Cecilio runs a large mercenary group but takes his orders from another individual._ " A64 revealed to which John slightly calmed down.

"How do you know this? Who's the other guy?" He sat on the table instead and payed attention to the information. " _My apologies, I may be a super computer but the identity of the individual is inconclusive. Cecilio's position makes him believe he's untouchable, he however relies on his followers and Shi, whose age and nationality I cannot identify, to protect him. Should you isolate him, he has nothing to use to keep you away from approaching and apprehending him._ "

"Huh, well I guess I underestimated you a lot over the past day of having you. Do you think you can help us with getting to Cecilio?" John asked; " _With the layout of the facility, I know a secret entrance which will lead you directly to Cecilio but with one problem: you will have to deal with Shi before reaching the target._ "

A holographic image of the facility is displayed from the arm and a view of Shi with weak spots pointed out appeared; "Then this mission should hopefully go well."

* * *

At a later time, James was approaching the facility when a guard came into view, James drew a knife and quietly snuck up behind the guard and slit his throat, disposing of the body within a bush nearby before proceeding towards the back of the facility.

He hid behind some crates and allowed two guards that approached from the opposite way to pass by; the ladder to the roof was in view so he dashed for it and made it to the air duct.

"Dok, I'm in position. Awaiting response from Raging Baby." James informed Doktor over the comms who was back at Chrometech in the command post, watching the two over the live feed from the satellite.

Another guard was on the opposite side of the building when he all of a sudden fainted; John emerges from the bushes when A64, who was detached, came back from the unconscious guard while retracting a wire into itself. It crawled up John and back onto him while John was using comms, "Don't call me that."

"Then don't call me 'Lover Boy'." James argues back; "James, just get in the damn air duct and make it to their command post." Doktor took over the comms and watched as James disappeared from view.

John moved into position, hiding near a drainage ditch that lead to a pipe. James made his way inside and was a few feet away from the CP; before he could make it there, four guards came out of the room and were heading in his direction.

"James, hide in that room." Doktor advised him as James opened the door to his right and hid in the room, allowing the four guards to pass by and away from CP; "That was a close call."

James finally managed to enter the room to find a single guard operating a computer that managed the surveillance cameras all over the facility as well as the communications between all the guards and Cecilio. James spun the chair which the guard sat in to face him, only to stab the knife in the guy's chin and throwing the body to the floor. "I have control of the CP, disabling enemy communication and locating the target."

John made his entry via climbing the pipe and entering through the open window; A64 detached and went on ahead to scout out the area, moving like a spider in the process. It got a good view and saw five guards in a indoor garden.

" _Five tangos marked. How should I take them, lethal or non-lethal?_ " A64 asked John over comms to which he replied with lethal; a wire extended from the base of the arm and a electricity was made at a high voltage.

John moved into the garden area and watched from above as A64 quietly shocked each and every guard to death, making sure they wouldn't alert the others, it covered their mouths.

"Nice. Moving to intercept target." John said as he slowly approached a small office room in the garden; Cecilio was in sight as he sat in the chair with John far behind him.

"Wait a minute, why isn't he moving?" James notices over the camera as he watches John enter the office and hold Cecilio in a chokehold; to everyone's disappointment, the person that John was choke-holding wasn't Cecilio and was a dead guard with a bomb attached to his body.

John quickly pushed the body away and tried to dive out of the room as the bomb exploded, sending him across the garden and into a fountain.

The CP was above the indoor garden and James could see outside the window the destruction below; "John? Come in, John!" John fell out of the fountain but was conscious.

Soon, a lot of guards poured into the garden as well as Cecilio and Shi who followed them in; James turned around to see the four guards enter the CP and his only escape was to dive out of the window onto a patch of roses which broke his fall.

The two could barely stand but had guards keeping them down as Cecilio approached John while laughing loud; "You really thought I would be in my office while you and your friend tried to catch me off guard? Ha! I knew you were comin' here."

John got onto his knees and James was brought over and was also forced to kneel down.

"So right now, you're probably thinkin' how a smart guy like myself figure out about this little plan to bag me. It's simple, I learned from your old friend X that you were keeping tabs on me the entire time." Cecilio took out a cigar and lit it; "I had to think the plan through though, I thought to myself 'what's more important about my facility than myself?' That's when I realised the command post was the only thing in which I could see everything within this facility of mine."

He smoked the cigar but shortly after, one of the guards brought the head of the corpse that was in the explosion; he put the cigar out by forcing it into the only eyeball that existed in the head.

"I also made sure that you would be fooled by appearance; you could only see "me" from behind but what about the shape of the body? I had to search through my own men for someone that looked exactly like me, give 'em a haircut and put on a suit and BAM! It was a nice suit, I tell you that."

John started laughing which confused everyone around him, even James; "You talk too much… I have a secret of my own: I knew this would happen."

Cecilio backed away a bit but before he could respond, a guard far to the left began screaming when A64, who didn't return to John before the explosion, attacked him and a few others nearby. During the mist of confusion, John and James quickly attacked the two guards behind them and broke their necks to steal their weapons, along with using their bodies as cover.

All of the other guards began firing at the two but was futile as the bullets only hit the bodies; after taking a few down, John had summoned his armor suit and sword to go for Cecilio while James took the guards on with A64 assisting John.

Shi got in his way and drew his katana to face John; "Anata wa, kon'ya shinuda masumasu! (You will die tonight, fool!)"

As Shi ran towards John, A64 communicated with John using the ear piece, " _Dodge to the right and slash at his chest, then duck quickly before using an uppercut to know him down._ " John followed the steps, jumping to the right when Shi did a downward slash, he sliced at Shi's chest which slightly weakened him as it healed; upon trying to swipe the katana at John, he ducked as instructed and landed a uppercut, forcing Shi in the air.

Shi recovered from the punch and attempted to throw ninja stars, but thanks to A64, John deflected them and used the thrusters in his suit to dash towards Shi and impale him through the heart which immediately weakens Shi.

"Anata jishin no... Rōjin ni shite imasu. (You're on your own… old man.)" Shi said his final words to Cecilio before ditching him and escaping the facility.

James has successfully killed all of the guards in the area and as John corners Cecilio, he aims a gun at the target as backup for John. "So you're thinking how I saw it coming? Thanks to my little assistant here."

John picked up a pair of handcuffs that one of the guards had and used them on Cecilio; the three exited the facility and while waiting for reinforcements to arrive, John explained everything.

"Before we commenced the operation, A64 hacked into the surveillance files and had found some footage of you revealing your plan to Shi a few hours before our arrival. I honestly didn't expect that the idea for us to fall for your plan would work as we decided to trigger the explosion to make you think everything worked exactly as you planned, hell, I didn't expect for James to dive out that window as he was to give cover from above. In the end, we would've fell for your plan and you would also have the chance to win if it weren't for A64 here."

After the complex dump, a Chrometech van came to which Cecilio was placed inside and brought back to HQ; Doktor waited at one of the cells for their arrival so that he could taunt Cecilio as he is given a new "comfy home".

* * *

The next day in the briefing room, John and Doktor watched on the monitor as Cecilio is gaining so much unwanted attention from other inmates, causing him to go insane.

"That's another one biting the dust, though I wouldn't celebrate yet. We still have a few more targets to nail." Doktor deactivate the monitor and returned to his office, John stops him. "I just want to say thanks for making A64 for me, without it, we wouldn't be here right now."

"It's what you get from a guy like me. And John, the name is 'Ally'. Remember?" Doktor then returned to his office while John turned around and saw James and Cheri kissing before she departed to continue with her job.

"Next time, please consider getting some privacy. I don't want to see you two kissing." John blurted out, James just threw a crushed up ball of paper at him instead and left the room.

"And to think I saved his ass…" John mumbled to himself.

* * *

 **It took long for this chapter due to that confusing reveal with the whole "I saw your plan" idea and also because I recently uploaded the first chapter to my new Devil May Cry fanfiction story.**

 **For those who wonder how Cecilio learned from X about the plans, it will be explained in another important chapter. Please leave a review on what you think about the story so far and if you have any suggestions for any OCs you want to see in A Gamer's Life, feel free to PM me and next chapter will have a OC appearing, will be revealed then but for now, adios!**

 **I also forgot to mention that I am currently making a novel which John is the main character in, I won't say what it is about but the John in this novel is a different John.**


	28. King of Nightmares

**John faces a new yet deadly opponent no one has ever defeated before, his name is The Nightmare King.**

* * *

John is currently taking on a mission within Sims City, though it was not what he expected; while flying through in his armor suit, he noticed that the buildings around him were collapsing.

"Dok, you better start explaining what the hell I am fighting!" John was panicking, he communicated with Doktor over comms who was rushing through multiple files.

 _"Even I can't identify what that thing is."_ Ally admitted through comms; "I can't find anything, you're on your own for this one."

"Damn it!" Out from nowhere, a wyvern smashed through the structure of a building to attack John, he barely dodges the attack. The wyvern flew back behind the buildings and John stopped to float in place, trying to hear out its location.

Eventually things were quiet, making it difficult for John to locate it; rain began falling from the sky and became heavy.

 _"To your left."_ John saw the wyvern approaching on his left so in quick succession, John dashed up and out of its way but at the same time, he stabbed his sword into its body and held on.

"This is insanely awesome!" He yelled as the wyvern smashed through buildings, trying to shake John off. "John, stop fooling around and kill that thing!" The angered tone of Doktor's voice hit John to which he back flipped off the wyvern with his sword and landed on a nearby rooftop, ready to face the wyvern.

As the wyvern came in for a attack, a black portal appears far to the side and a ball of fire emerges and engulfs the wyvern which then slowly floats back to the portal; "What the?" John stood in confusion but was ready to face the threat.

After the ball of fire disappeared, the portal remained open for a full minute until a man forces himself out and at the rooftop with John, causing the former to explode in fire.

John's only option was to fly off the rooftop with the time given; though his plan worked, the entity was too fast for him as he caught up with John every time he avoided an attack.

Finally the entity stopped and stood in clear view, he stood ten feet tall and sported black armor with fairytale-like robes reaching the ground; his skin could've been in any better condition, it was rotting like a corpse and his face was almost a complete skull. His eyes were gleaming with fiery-yellow eyes.

"Who the hell are you?!" John questioned the walking corpse, he only stood there but waved his arm upwards and then down from his side which a small portal appeared under his command and little spirits came out to attack John.

The spirits were no problem for John, though they were transparent, they reacted to physical hits from his sword.

The enemy called back the spirits and left in a ball of fire through the black portal, leaving John even more confused.

The building he was standing on eventually started collapsing with him on it, he couldn't activate his jet thrusters so he eventually fell down with the building but used the billboard sign like a surfboard to ride down in style.

* * *

Cutting back to Chrometech, John had a black eye and a few other injuries he sustained and Cheri held a bag of ice to his eye.

"So what are we dealing with here? Some cosplay fan who stepped in the wrong void?" Cheri gave John the ice bag; Ally viewed a projected screen with the enemy on it.

 _"Though he came through what seemed a portal from another dimension, his origins is from this world."_ More images were shown and each image were just as bad as the previous with the enemy on a killing rampage.

"Oh great, a dimension traveler. Someone call Dr. Who." John jokingly said to which Ally zapped him, "Ow! Remind me to teach you about jokes sometime."

 _"I understand your attempt at jokes, you simply don't know how to make one."_

"Quiet you two, look at the monitor." Doktor commanded them and the monitor had shown a man standing outside the doorsteps of Chrometech, he looked Romanian and he had a few soldiers of his own with him.

They were invited in; the Romanian soldiers were confused with the technology around them but their leader was more focused with his objective.

"My name is Octavian, ruler of the Roman Empire. I have came here to form a truce; you had a run in with Anthony." Octavian said, his voice slightly trembled upon saying the name.

"Anthony, the guy who looks like a more uglier Wade Wilson?" John yet again jokingly said to which Ally zapped him a second time; John pushed the arm away. "You were saying…"

Octavian sighed and began speaking, "Anthony was one of my own, we fought in many battles together and he became one of my finest generals; he would never harm any of us after he swore an oath. His power was like nothing we never seen before, many fell victim to his might and he lead our army to victory. However, a prophecy foretold the rise of the Nightmare King which would destroy all of humanity; I knew what would happen if I didn't act, so I banished him into another realm known as the Hall of Souls, a endless universe of corrupted souls which torture any traveler. It was my mistake, he grew to its power after 2000 years and commands the souls for his own gains. If we don't act now, our entire world and all of the outside world will perish to his might."

"So you want me to help you defeat a walking, rotten tomato? That's a good one 'cause the guy is too strong for me." John said, Ally tried to zap him a third time but then John grabbed the electric whip before she was successful.

"I have an army at the ready to battle, all we need is a helping hand from you who dealt with these problems before." One of Octavian's men gave the former a scroll.

"In return for your help, we will offer you a large amount of treasure." Octavian offered after handing over the scroll; John accepted and was about to follow Octavian out but end up being zapped once again by Ally.

* * *

Out on a plain field, Octavian and his army prepare for combat while John stood behind a tent, using his comms.

"Ok, I regret doing this. I'd rather take a beating from Star Butterfly than take my chances surviving against this thing." John admitted; "Well you can't turn back now, they're counting on you right now." Doktor reminded him as John sighed heavily before hanging up.

One of the soldiers came up to John, impressed by his cybernetic arm and the stories heard about him; "You're John McCoy, aren't you?" He questioned John to which he nodded.

"I heard a lot about you and I have to say, you're awesome! I'm Anton Vasile." He looked to be in his twenties but with the personally of a teenager. Despite this, John continue to talk to this man before the battle begun.

Inside the tent was Octavian who had a old man by his side and a table with the battlefield layout. "Do you have the spell ready?" Octavian asked the old man who replied with a yes in a weak voice. "We will need to be ready with the spell if we are going to capture Anthony and banish him to the right dimension this time."

One of his men entered the tent and informed him of a portal opening; when he and his men rushed to the portal, John and Anton followed on but the former is stopped by the old man.

"Use this if you want to slow the evil one down." He gave John a bracelet with yellow gems dotted around it, John was confused but took the bracelet for use.

John and Anton stood by Octavian's side as they watched on when Anthony emerges from the portal; many soldiers with bows and arrows were commanded to shoot on sight but the arrows flew through Anthony's body with no pain.

Anthony smirked evilly and unleashed an army of spirits to which a battle broke out between the two armies.

John forced his way through the crowds and whenever he sees any of his allies in danger, he would help them out, though is real objective is to fight Anthony. There he stood in the center of everything and John watched as Anthony drew a large sword almost the same size as the owner himself.

The bracelet lit up and Anthony felt slightly weak, John took this moment to attack but got deflected back as a result. "You may have the Bracelet of Light, but you will never be able to defeat me." Anthony said, his voice was deep like a demon.

The two battled, John kept using the bracelet to weaken Anthony but he would always get back up to fight and use his magic to assist him.

Every time John deflects a sword hit from him, the force of the attack was enough to send him through the air; during the fight, Anthony passed by one of Octavian's soldiers, picked the guy up by the head and snapped his neck before using him as a projectile to knock John down.

"Damn it!" John didn't see the body come at him and was put down to the ground with the body on top of him. Anthony slowly approached John who was trying to escape after losing his sword.

Out from the crowd Anton got in the way and fended off Anthony for as long as John could find his sword.

"Want to get John? You gotta go through me!" He said in a cocky tone despite having a ten foot tall monster in front of him. John found his sword under a few corpses and took it out.

Instantly, John heard screaming which he turned his attention to the two and to his horror, Anton stood frozen in place with a sword piercing through his chest. "NOOO!" Anthony pulled the sword from his chest and Anton's body fell to the ground like a rag doll.

He instantly died and John, enraged, caused the Bracelet of Light to engulf the area which kills every spirit around and badly weakens Anthony who made a portal to escape through.

"Oh no you don't, you bastard!" John followed in and the portal closes behind him.

"This is bad." Octavian said after gulping while staring at the spot where the portal originally appeared at.

* * *

 **That's the end of part one here, part two will continue with next chapter with the showdown between Anthony the Nightmare King and John.**

 **Both Nightmare King and Octavian belong to the user TheDisneyFan365.**


	29. The Nightmare King

**John and Anthony have one final showdown within the Hall of Souls.**

* * *

John was still in pursuit of Anthony as he flew through the portal; one moment struck John's mind.

 **FLASHBACK**

A few months ago, John was surrounded by the racers and their candy-themed fans; Lucy stood in the back of the crowd but then walked away out of sight. John made his way through the crowd to catch up to Lucy who waited behind the corner.

"Lucy, what's wrong?" John asked his girlfriend who gave a sad look in response, "Doktor told me he was building something to take us back home. Are we leaving the arcade?"

"It was the original plan like two years ago. Why, don't you miss your family?" Upon asking this, Lucy turned away, "I never told you, I never wanted to tell anyone or remember it myself. I don't have a family, my mother passed away when she gave birth to me and my father was a drunk, violent asshole."

When she began crying, John gave her a warm hug, she then held him tightly. "He would beat me for pleasure, treats me like a slave; I couldn't take much more of it, everyone treated me horribly. Everything I told you about my family was a lie, just so I don't remember everything that has happened to me. I don't want to leave here, and I don't want you to leave me either."

The racers were peaking around the corner at the two, Minty and Candlehead came forward to also hug Lucy.

"You know what, I don't even know why I planned to leave. The only family I have now is you guys and I will not let anyone or anything take you all away from me, that's a promise." John announced, everyone cheered while Lucy, still with a sad face, slightly smirked and laid her head on his chest.

 _"Promise me that…"_

 **FLASHBACK END**

* * *

Lucy's voice echoed through John's head, "I promise…"

John could see Anthony far in front, all the two were doing was floating through a portal warp but John tried to catch up to him somehow.

A bright light consumed Anthony first and then John shortly became engulfed in the light. As it wore off, John could hear a lot crying and groaning coming from around him and he could see the cause of it all, he was floating randomly with over billions upon billions of souls all around. They appear corrupted and obviously in pain from their eternal suffering.

Before John knew it, he was in the Hall of Souls, the very same dimension in which Anthony has been banished to for 2000 years. The latter was a distance away, his presence causes the souls around him to evade his air.

"Welcome, to my humble abode. Or better yet, your resting ground." Anthony's demonic voice causes the souls to tremble in fear. "I think it would be better if you were the one to die here, not me. Besides, I have a reason to live, you don't." John retorted with so much anger, causing Anthony to chuckle.

"I figure the traitor, Octavian would find someone to assist him, funny how he has chosen a kid to do his work. So he told you the reason for my banishment, that I would rid of humanity? Typical of him; a 'prophecy' that I, the great and devious Nightmare King will rise to take what is rightfully mine." Even John trembled under his voice but shook it off like it was nothing.

"I would like to see you try! You're going to pay for what you have done; the innocent that fell victim to a comic book villain wannabe!" John attempted to disown but what was more noticeable was that the souls began entering his body slowly.

"Even in fiction, men have their moment of triumph. Unlike them, mine will not be short lived!"

Anthony's eyes flashed brightly when suddenly the numerous souls were all called into him, channeling so much power until he eventually changed his form. What now floated in front of John was nothing but a 20ft grotesque corpse, sporting multiple limbs for a mutated body and a sense of corruption flowing through him.

"My goal for control will begin after I squeeze every last drop of blood from your body, and I will not make it quick for you!" His voice became deeper like nobody has ever heard before.

Before a battle between the two could commence, they could hear the voice of Octavian and Doktor; back in the arcade, they were able to watch and communicate with the two, thanks to the old man who is using a large round reflecting pool.

"John, we will try and get you out of there however we can." Doktor relives the kid in attempt to calm things for him.

"Stay out of this! I'm ending this prick's life right here, right now!" John angrily responded and it stuns Doktor immensely, "John, why are you-"

"The negative power of the souls are filling his body with anger and hate. Should he take in too much, he shall forget his humanity and become unstoppable." The old man quickly informed the two beside him while more and more souls continue to enter John's body.

"Anthony, why are you doing this?! What happened to the oath you swore to me?!" Octavian reminded the all corrupted Anthony; "That oath was nothing more than words, words that mean nothing to me. You should know why I am doing this: because you betrayed me and left me here for 2000 long years to suffer! Now it is my turn to encapsulate you in your own purgatory for the next 2000 years!" Anthony then laughed like a madman.

John ignored the fact that he would lose humanity, all he cared for right now was to kill Anthony; every soul that has entered his body mutated him into something corrupted and filled with so much negativity, he couldn't identify what's right anymore.

"First I am going to beat you to a bloody pulp, then I am going to rip your head from your pathetic body and pull every piece of flesh from it with my bare hands!" Even John was at this point unable to be identified by the others, he has changed form so horribly, it nearly matches Anthony's level of nightmare.

The Bracelet of Light began to glow a bright yellow color until John was able to retain his appearance but still in a corrupted state, he had only little humanity left as well.

 _"Promise me that…"_ the only voice that could be heard in his mind was Lucy's. "I made a promise that I intend to keep, no matter how evil I become." Those were John's last words before he readied himself.

"Become evil if you must, nothing will prepare you for the true nightmare that awaits your fate." Anthony spawned four spirit swords against John's only one.

The two clashed together with a big impactful explosion around them; Anthony used the extra two swords to try and throw John off, but was a wasted attempt when John utilized his newfound power and protected his sides with spirit shields.

John lunges out to attack and was successful, impaling Anthony in the abdomen, but the latter slashed at John's which causes a gushing of black blood. Fortunately the power was capable of healing and John recalled his sword that vanished from the abdomen and reappeared in his hand.

Unexpectedly, Anthony began breathing purple fire so big, it would put any dragon to shame; John was barely able to dodge this, taking a painful burn to his face and left arm.

To retaliate from that, John commanded many spirits to his side, the same kind of spirits that Anthony uses. The spirits all transformed into doppelgängers of John to confuse Anthony; the plan worked as the latter would attack the fakes and would not realize that the real John was above his head, John stabbed his sword into Anthony's skull, but it did not kill him.

Anthony grabbed John by the leg and threw him away as well as pulling the sword out from his skull and crushing it; John recovered and watched as his enemy performed a new attack.

From the center of his combined hands, Anthony constructed a enormous spirit bomb to throw at John. He had no sword, John used his spirit shield to slow the bomb down in a way to catch it and throw it back but to make sure it hits, he use lightning speed to punch Anthony a million times within a second to stun the Nightmare King.

The explosion forced John away and the king in a state of unconsciousness; "I'm getting really pissed off here! Guess this is the last resort." John returned close and closed his eyes.

"W-why you… I will kill you… I will make you understand why you can't kill the Nightmare King!" Anthony regained conscious and dashes towards the immobilized kid; John has made use of the souls that remain and sucks them into his body.

He then causes the biggest explosion that anyone has ever saw, with the King receiving so much damage from one blast to melt majority of his body.

"What have you done?!" He cried when John uses one last attack which involves slashing uncontrollably at the disabled corpse. John finally opened up a portal below Anthony and he positions his reconstructed sword to slam down hard, "Maybe I am unable to kill you, but what fun is that when I can imprison you in a dimension for all of eternity!"

The final blow is dealt which sends Anthony through the portal into a heavenly bright dimension to weaken and torture him forever; the portal slowly closes as Anthony screamed his last words: "You will regret this! I will return to find you, and once I do, you are DEAD!"

The emphasized word echoed through the smallest gap in the closing portal, soon after that, John was left alone in the Hall of Souls.

"There's only one thing left to do." John would then disperse every single soul in his body away before opening one last portal to bring him back to the arcade world.

* * *

As John drops through, he collapses to the ground in a desperate struggle while Doktor, Octavian and the old man came to his aid. "Though he has rid of the souls from his body, their corruption is slowly poisoning his humanity. Soon he will forget everyone he has ever known and loved." The old man unfortunately informed the two as they worry.

John's skin was pale as a ghost, his veins changed to a dark purple and the color in his eyes were faint; "L-Lu-ucy…" his voice became weak as so did his entire body.

"Get him inside the tent where my potions are, I will need to give him a cure before it is too late!" The old man demanded when a few of Octavian's men carried John inside the tent and placed him on the table, by this point he has passed out.

* * *

 **FLASHBACK**

The same night months ago, John and Lucy sat together within the village in Sugar Rush; they were holding hands and looking up at the stars in the night sky.

"John, what will happen to us if we stay here?" Lucy questioned her boyfriend who glanced at her with a smile, "Who knows, all I care for is that I have you and the friends we deserve."

"But then who will remember our stories when we pass away?" She began challenging him with more serious questions about their future together. "Maybe our future children, and their future children. They will be passed on down through the many generations to come, until eventually life in the arcade ceases to exist. It matters not for what becomes of our fates, they will only remember us by the things that we do to help the people of the arcade."

Lucy rested her head on his shoulder as they continue to admire the stars; "I will promise you something, for the rest of our lives, we will remain together and nothing will do us part." John said before they then shared a kiss.

"Promise me that." Lucy finally said as they continue to admire.

 **FLASHBACK END**

* * *

John was slowly starting to wake up to realize where he is, lying in a bed in a small medic room. At his side were many 'get well' cards and flowers; near the window was Lucy, she sat on a single chair but was asleep.

The door opened and in came Doktor and Cheri; their appearance awakens Lucy and once she saw John finally awake, she launched out of the chair and to him, bombarding him with kisses.

"Good, you're finally awake. How do you feel?" Doktor asked, as much as he was excited, he sounded troubled.

"I feel weak. How long was I out?" He responded to which Cheri revealed about two months. "We have good news and bad news; the good news is you have successfully stopped Anthony from succeeding and saved the arcade world. The bad news… after you were given the cure, your body rejected the cure's properties; you were saved from losing your sense of humanity, but the rejection also means that you still house some negative power and are prone to violent outbursts of anger."

The bad news has caused them all in the room worry, John mostly; he looked saddened and down until Lucy held his hand.

"For all I want to know, how the hell were you able to regain your humanity?" Doktor immediately questioned John's amazing efforts during the battle to which he simply looked at Lucy and smiled, "Because I made a promise."

* * *

 **This has got to be my favourite chapter, yet the longest to develop. I will be going easy on the next set of chapters with the next one being more about some of the main cast from the movie and less on the third party members.**

 **Please leave a review for this chapter and let me know if you enjoyed it, and I suggest you may want to also take the time to look at TheDisneyFan365 stories, full credit to the user for the creation of both the Nightmare King and Octavian and for giving me permission to use them.**

 **This is S3AN06 signing out, adios!**


	30. Problems

**When Taffyta's engine for her kart breaks,she enlists the help of the other racers to get her a new engine; Felix deals with a problem in his game and only John and Candlehead can help.**

* * *

Both John and Candlehead sat in the seats while on the train-cart, sitting patiently except for John.

The train-cart was heading for Fix-it Felix Jr. when all of a sudden, a Cy-bug dive bombs onto the two. "WHAT THE HECK?!" Candlehead yelled when the Cy-bug pounced for her.

John intervened and was able to kick the Cy-bug into the electrical ground below; the two watched as the Cy-bug became electrified and disintegrated. "Well that's one way to start off the chapter. Where the hell did the Cy-bug come from?" John questioned the mysterious appearance of the Cy-bug and to which Candlehead shrugged her shoulders to add to the confusion.

As the train-cart stopped, the two could see what was going on: the entire game is overrun with Cy-bugs; the penthouse was like a nest for the bugs.

"Oh, my joystick..." The Cy-bugs focused their attention to the flame on Candlehead's candle, eventually swarming the two, forcing them to exit the carts and make a run for cover.

They hid behind a pile of bricks, throwing them at any close Cy-bug. "What are we going to do John?" Candlehead asks when the Cy-bugs began surrounding them.

One Cy-bug grabbed Candlehead by the leg and pulled her away; she screamed so loud, it was ear piercing. "Candlehead!" John was able to quickly grab a hold of Candlehead arms and began pulling her back, all while Candlehead attempted to kick the Cy-bug in the face until she was loose.

"Guys, over here! Quickly!" Felix yelled from the entrance to the penthouse, holding the door open for the two; John picked Candlehead up and carried her as he ran for the entrance.

The Cy-bug was hot on his tail, so he picked up the pace, eventually making it through the doors on time as Felix closed them, shutting the Cy-bugs out for a short time before they came busting through. John and Candlehead followed Felix into a elevator which took them down to the basement, the only place Cy-bugs can't reach them.

Upon the elevator doors opening, John and Candlehead were welcomed by the Nicelanders.

The basement was small but big enough to fit everyone including the two inside; John, Felix and Gene stood on one side of the room while Candlehead and everyone else were on the other side.

"How long has the outbreak been going for?" John asked Felix but Gene answered instead in a state of anger, "Too long, we need to send someone to get help!"

"It's been going for three hours now. I don't know how they got here; everything was fine before they've begin unexpectedly showing up." Felix retorted to which Gene then walked away to sit with the others.

"And where's Ralph, or Calhoun for that matter?" John questioned again; "Ralph is at Bad-anon right now, and Calhoun is training rookies to fight Cy-bugs and she doesn't want to be disturbed so we are on our own right now. I wish she would train them here." Felix then daydreamed of his Dynamite Gal.

The Nicelanders were trying to make themselves comfy while hiding out in the basement, the three joined them; "Well, we might wait a while and hopefully someone will come to our help." John said as he sat down besides Candlehead and the others.

* * *

Meanwhile in Sugar Rush, Taffyta and Rancis were outside the village in their karts when they were approached by some other racers.

"Hey Taff, wanna race?" Jubileena, followed by Minty, Gloyd, Swizzle, Adorabeezle, Snowanna and Crumbelina challenged the two to which Taffyta accepted, smirking as she saw her victory in her head.

"Yeah, I can beat all of you in a race, I do it everyday!" Taffyta proudly rubs it in their faces as she leaped into her kart and started the engines.

Unfortunately for her, the engines ceased to function. They began generating loud sounds and producing smoke which began emerging from inside; all of the racers watched and tried to keep it in them from laughing.

"No, no, no, why?!" She began panicking as she got out of her kart to check the interior when a large cloud of smoke was forced into her face. The others couldn't hold it any longer and began laughing at the sight of Taffyta's face covered in so much smoke.

She broke down in tears and the others stopped laughing, knowing that it isn't funny anymore; "Don't worry, Taff, it's just a engine. You can always get a new one." Jubileena said, attempting to cheer the saddened Taffyta up.

"D-do you k-know how hard i-it is to catch them...?" she retorted, referring to the engines that require patience and skill to hogtie them to add to the kart.

"We will help you catch one." Minty said and Taffyta gave her the puppy eyes, "You will?" Everyone except Gloyd nodded which made Taffyta happy again; Gloyd tried to back out but was pulled in by Jubileena, "You're helping us too, got it?" Gloyd nervously nodded while smirking at the angered look of his girlfriend.

The while group left the village to head into the plain fields to find a engine.

* * *

Back at the penthouse, John grew impatient until he snapped, "That's it! I have had enough of sitting in this death box of a room for far too long!" John got up and marched towards the elevator with Felix following him.

"John, where are you going? You know it is crawling with bugs out there." Felix questioned John's crazy thought as the latter pressed the 'call' button for the elevator. "No one is coming to find us and even if they did, do you really think they would be able to stop this madness?"

Felix countered argued,"Do you think YOU would be able to stop the madness? Not on your own."

The elevator arrived and John stood inside with Felix also joining him.

"Can I help?" Candlehead came forward to ask; John stopped her from entering the elevator. "No, I don't want to risk your life out there. Stay here with the others and don't come up." He said before allowing the doors to close. Candlehead stood there with a sad expression and one of the Nicelanders walked here away.

As the elevator was going up, Felix was beginning to feel nervous while John felt calm despite what they were about to head into. "Ally, I need a full scan and count of all of the Cy-bugs within the area." John asked his cybernetic arm as a holographic image of the layout of the game appears.

 _"There are currently 7,482 Cy-bugs and growing. I would advise positioning on the roof and ground level for total control over the outbreak."_ The number on the hologram increased exponentially to show the population of Cy-bugs within the game. "Ok, I will take the roof, you will hold ground." John commanded Felix who gave him a confident nod.

As soon as the doors open, John shot a flash grenade from his cybernetic arm which distracted the Cy-bugs. John ran for the roof, slashing his way through any Cy-bug in his way while Felix made it outside.

Once in their positions, the two go all out on the Cy-bugs, killing any that got within range; John used his sword and whatever weaponry his arm stored while Felix relied on his trusty hammer and incredible hopping skills. Despite the large number of Cy-bugs, the two had a comfortable time fighting the horde and even if things did get a little too rough for either one of them, John has a few more flash grenades at the ready.

After a few minutes, John began noticing some Cy-bugs nearby that are already dead, they look beaten by a melee weapon but not from the hammer Felix is using. Looking in the distance,John could clearly see Candlehead wielding a crowbar as a weapon.

"Candlehead?! What the hell is she doing out here?" John questioned himself before quickly making his way over to her; Candlehead was attacking a Cy-bug and was able to kill it with just a crowbar.

"I told you to stay inside!" John angrily stated to which Candlehead turned around and pointed the green-blooded crowbar directly at his face. "I don't care what you tell me to do! You're not my dad, so shut up and let me fight for once!" she retaliated and John groaned loudly before screaming out of frustration. "Fine, you can help!"

Candlehead began jumping for joy until a large Cy-bug appeared, forcing John to shoot a frag grenade inside its mouth. The resulting explosion covered both John and Candlehead in so much blood.

"Eww! I'm covered in Cy-bug stuff! My candle!" she noticed the flame has gone out due to the blood covering it, so she fell to her knees and tightly held onto the candle and suddenly let out a painful scream. The Cy-bugs became stunned from the loud scream, even Felix became confused at what just happened.

In a fit of rage, Candlehead began smashing any nearby Cy-bug in the head with the crowbar until they were dead; John's jaw dropped from the humorous sight of a little girl defeating deadly creatures with a crowbar.

* * *

The racers arrived at the field and found it empty of engines; "They must be hiding somewhere. Anyway, this is how Vanellope taught me: use this rope and try to catch them, make sure you tire the engines out first." Rancis instructed all of the racers there; Taffyta became slightly jealous that Rancis is taking the lead with the group, to her it almost feels like he is taking her place as the leader of the group.

The racers waited for a while until the engines came rushing out onto the field; the racers prepared the ropes and attempted to lasso them, the plan was failing.

Some racers were missing their cues to throw the ropes, others were simply thrown off after a second of catching one; Taffyta started to become annoyed at the others failing and was insulting them, "Are you kidding me?! You guys can't catch a engine to save your lives!"

Rancis was the only one who was able to successfully ride one which the other racers were cheering him on. This victory however came to an end when the engine violently shook him off and into a mud puddle; Rancis complained of his messy hair as the engines disappeared out of sight. Taffyta approached Rancis and scolded him deeply, folding her arms to show the anger and frustration she is going through.

"I asked for one thing, ONE THING, and not one of you were able to do it! You call yourselves racers?!" Rancis then got up and shoved his way past the angered Taffyta, the other racers soon followed him before giving one final comment, "You never asked! We offered to help you, now you can do it yourself!" the racers then left the area when Taffyta stomped her feet, "FINE, WHO NEEDS YOU!"

Taffyta picked up some rope and followed the engines to where they hide, hoping she can catch one on her own.

* * *

After a long and tedious battle, John, Felix and Candlehead brought the remaining Cy-bugs up to the roof where they fought together.

Fortunately for the three, Calhoun and a squad of space marines came in on time to assist them, killing any remaining Cy-bugs by using their plasma rifles. Felix was really happy to see his lover, he hopped off the building down into her arms where the two shared a kiss, Candlehead thought it was adorable while John shook his head in disappointment over Felix's little stunt.

As time passes on, Ralph has also returned to the game to witness the Cy-bugs for himself as their corpses were being carried into a shipping container to be sent to an incinerator. On the roof was where the group stood as they watched the Cy-bugs being taken care of.

"So let me get this straight, you never let anyone escape Hero's Duty with a Cy-bug egg without you seeing them do so?" John questioned Calhoun's job, she nodded and then kicked the corpse of one of the Cy-bugs off the roof; "It's impossible, first they would have to get past me and no one has ever gotten past me." Calhoun stated to which Ralph coughed intentionally and loudly.

"EVEN if they did, they would also need to get past the sensor at the main exit, and no one was able to do so." she continue to add.

"Well, someone we may or may not know has probably mastered the art of stealth. Wait, where's Candlehead?" John and the others looked around the roof to find Candlehead, she then appeared on the roof again but only in her panties.

Everyone except John looked away and told her to put her clothes back on; "Hey, now that I got my candle lit again and the hard work from today, I think we deserve a nice swim in the pool." Candlehead said as she began to run towards the pool to dive into; "Candlehead, you can't-" before John could finish what he was saying, the sound of splashing water interrupted him and Candlehead emerges from the bottom of the pool.

"Did you guys see- NO, MY CANDLE!" she cried when the candle floated in the water with the flame extinguished; everyone couldn't help but laugh at the stupidity of Candlehead.

Down at the game's exit, a person stood within the shadows, watching the group before disappearing from the game...

* * *

Taffyta hid out of the engines' sight, rope at the ready and slowly came close to them while remaining hidden.

Once within range, she would jump out onto them and would attempt to catch one, but upon managing to get the rope around one of the engines, she was flung into a mud puddle just like Rancis was. Tears were forming in her eyes as she tried to wipe off the mud; a hand reached down to her and when she looked up at who it was, it was Rancis.

He helped her up onto her feet and tried to wipe some of the mud away; Taffyta was confused, she insulted him and the others before but he is still helping her out. The others were behind Rancis as they watched.

"Why are you helping me?" she asked, "We figured you wouldn't be successful in capturing a engine on your own and we thought to help you out, regardless of what you said." Rancis told her, Taffyta then gave him the biggest hug anyone has ever given him, causing him to blush. "I'm sorry for judging you all before, I was stupid and pathetic to do that. Can you forgive me?" her puppy eyes were in action again and eventually, they did.

They all worked together to capture the perfect engine for Taffyta, and for their help, she decided to miss out on the next race to allow for everyone to have a chance to win. She wasn't upset that she didn't race with her new engine, in fact she was happy to let someone else win for a change, proving that she has a heart despite a bossy attitude.

* * *

 **This is probably going to kill me, I am 30 chapters in now and I still have a few ideas to use within this story. You may have noticed that I have the horizontal lines now, all of the chapters will be updated to include them and future chapters will have them.**

 **Enough about that, on with the bloopers!**

 **BLOOPERS:**

Chapter 26 - Trial & No Error:

John was about to climb into the vent but felt how cold the air and surface was, "Well this is cold. Why do I always get myself- ok, screw it, can I at least wear some pants for this? This is really freezing cold!" John broke out of character and asked the director who declined John's request. Some of the stage hands were left laughing.

Chapter 27 - Lending A Hand:

James came rushing into the briefing room, he however ran in too fast to control himself and eventually fell over. John and Doktor helped him up while laughing; "Cut! can I do that again? Sorry, I lost control."

Chapter 28 - King of Nightmares:

After Octavian has given a full explanation and backstory on Anthony, John paused for a moment and just randomly burst out with laughter, "I'm sorry. How can you remember all of that and not mess up one bit?" They did another take with Octavian having to say the whole speech again but halfway through, he messes up. "God damn it John! You messed me up!"

Chapter 29 - The Nightmare King:

After John has awoken from his coma, he asked Doktor how long he was out for, the doctor from MGSV: The Phantom Pain unexpectedly came in, "I'm afraid you have been out for nine years." The whole room went silent for a while until John spoke up, "I don't have shrapnel in my head, do I?"

Chapter 30 - Problems:

John and Candlehead arrived in Fix-it Felix Jr. when they saw all of the Cy-bugs; "Oh, my joystick... that sounds really inappropriate for this, especially with a kid next to me!" John immediately said which everyone gave the director a strange look. "What do you want him to say? 'Oh, my mod...'? That is overused." said the director.


	31. Brotherly Love

**A boy with a special ability requests John's help to rescue someone close to him.**

It was a normal day in Sugar Rush for John and Candlehead, they were relaxing down by Chocolate Milk Falls alone.

Candlehead was playing in the river bed of the chocolate milk while John rested up against a candy cane tree; "Hey John, come join me!" Candlehead requested while splashing around, "No thanks, Candlehead." John wore a pair of sunglasses as it was bright out and warm. Candlehead continued to swim around in the chocolate milk as well as playing with an inflatable ball; up top the falls was someone watching the two below.

Out from behind John came some of the racers that ran for the river bed and dived into it; "What the?" John became confused as Vanellope laid down near him on her own outdoor sunbed. "You two are not the only ones who come down here to relax, you know." After them, their parents also arrived to relax there.

"Mom, get the camera!" Sticky excitedly yelled to her mother which confuses John even more, "Camera?" Mentha took a camera out and pressed the button to begin recording and she pointed it up to the top of the falls to which every one looked up to.

Swizzle was standing at the top and looked down upon everyone, he was so high up, more than 50ft but that didn't scare him one bit. Swizzle took a few steps back and began running to leap off and dive into the river bed below, "CANNONBALL!" he curled up into a ball halfway down and the next thing the others knew, Swizzle has made a splash so big, everyone was covered in chocolate milk, even John who took off his sunglasses and shivered in disgust.

Sticky found Swizzle floating in the center of the river bed and went over to congratulate him as his parents did, "That's my boy!" his father proudly said. Mentha finished the recording and allowed the others to watch.

While the racers and their parents spent most of the time at the falls, John made his way back to the castle to change his clothing, but first a shower.

* * *

John decided to waste time at Chrometech, his former idea was ruined from the unexpected arrival of his friends.

Doktor was making coffee and unexpectedly yet glad to see John, "Good, you're here. I need you to run an errand for me." he asked. "Sure..." John replied, he was unsure what was going on until he was given a package. "Umm, Dok..." John was unable to say much as Doktor constantly interrupted him; Doktor handed him a piece of paper with some detail on it.

"The customer has recently purchased this item and has requested it to be delivered immediately." Doktor began pushing John out of his office while he has the package in hand, it was no more bigger than his head. "Hey, wait! Why am I needing to do this? Can't you just get James or someone else to do it?" John questioned Doktor to which he replied, "No one would do it strangely, you're the only one gullible to do the errand."

"Gullible? Fine I'll do it." John walked out the office with the items; "But this is the-" as John turned around to see Doktor one last time, the office door was closed shut and Doktor himself was back at the desk to continue his work in peace. John sighed deeply and continued down the hallway.

Surprisingly, Cheri was in her office, looking neatly dressed like if she was going to a party or something.

"You're back early, didn't enjoy the fun down at Chocolate Milk Falls?" Cheri didn't expect him to be there and reacted in fright; she looked nervous. "John I need your help." she was putting her makeup on fast but was shaking so bad, the makeup was going all over her face.

"Woah, woah, calm down! What is the matter? Why are you dressed nice- wait a minute, do you have... a date?" John smirked as Cheri turned to face him, "NO, I mean... yes! Oh John, James is the most romantic, handsome man. I just love it when he sweeps me off my feet with gifts." There was a small photo frame on her desk and in it was James; Cheri continued to put her makeup on but slowly this time.

"I'm nervous, we have a date shortly and I don't have anyone to look after my girls. Can you watch over them?" she pleaded John while screwing up with her makeup again. John instead took over and did the makeup for her and cleaned any mistakes she made; "I'm on a little errand, but I will get Doktor to watch over them. You on the other hand, have a date to go to." he said as he finished helping Cheri put the makeup on for her and let her look in the mirror at the expert work.

Cheri looked beautiful and elegant, according to her own words upon seeing John's work; "Thank you John. How can you do this perfectly?" John shrugged his shoulders, "Eh, I did have a few friends back in the orphanage that wore some makeup. I did a little training."

They both looked at the time on the clock; "Is that the time already?! I must go, thank you for helping me John, you're the best friend anyone could ask for." Cheri kissed John on the cheek as a reward and left the office in a hurry.

John also left the office in a hurry but locked the door behind him before leaving Chrometech.

* * *

As John was walking through the crowded Game Central Station, he held the package tightly in his arm, ensuring no one will snatch it off him.

A few random characters that were as big as the racers came up to John and asked him for his autograph, John couldn't refuse but he couldn't rush them either. After signing the autographs, the fans went away but then someone behind John distracted him to steal the package from him. "Hey, that's mine!" He gave chase, the thief was really fast but not as fast as the likes of Sonic. The chase lead John into Sim City to which the guy ran into the subway system.

John was still hot on his tail and the guy boarded the train as it took off; he strangely managed to open and close the doors without touching them and despite how confusing this was to John, he still ran for the train. John was too late to enter the train but instead decided to jump onto the roof and waited up there until the train made its next stop.

Once the train has stopped, the guy made a run for the exit with John in tow. Leaving the subway and heading into the nearest building which was under construction.

John was forced to take the stairs, all due to one problem, he doesn't have his suit or the time to summon it and unbelievably, the guy began levitating up to the roof. The hooded guy began stumbling and holding his head in pain, groaning with each step up; the construction workers came to his attention but were pushed back by a strange force. Eventually he made it to the roof and fell to his knees while still holding his head; John bursts through the doors from the stairway and confronted the trapped thief. "You got a knack for stealing a guy like me, kid. I give you respect for your bravery, but you are stupid to do so. Now give it back, or there will be some consequences!" John threatened the hooded thief who just stared aimlessly at John.

John drew his sword which he kept on him since he left Chrometech. The guy regained conscious and picked up a lead pipe to defend himself; he also made a few other lead pipes levitate and threw them at John. John dodged and deflected them and went straight into a guarding stance when the thief came in to strike at him; the guy kept hitting at John with each blow feeling weaker and weaker until he slowed down and eventually stopped.

After blocking out the blows, John quickly came in to kick the guy back a distance and then sheath the sword. Recovering from the kick, the guy threw the pipe at John in a fit of rage and decided to initiate his final attack; standing a distance back, he began focusing with his eyes closed and placed both hands out in front of him.

A gust of wind surrounded the area and shortly after that, the crane tower behind him came collapsing down with enough force to begin destroying the construction on the roof; rubble flying everywhere and concrete falling like meteors.

"Oh you got to be kidding me?!" John said out loud. The guy screamed in pain like a banshee until he passed out and fell to the ground; the crane tower was about to crush him but thankfully, the ground they stood on cracked and began falling down from the building. John had to quickly draw his sword and cut his way through everything to reach the guy who fell down the side of the building with the crane following.

John again sheathed Verdugo and came up with the crazy idea to use parkour to make it through the debris in the way, fortunately reaching the unconscious thief and grabbing a hold of him tightly. John relied on using the debris and the crane on safely making his way down to ground floor which he successfully does.

He laid the body down and searched through him for the package... it was missing, "Damn!" John disappointingly said followed with a sigh. "Better get this guy to HQ, he's got a lot of explaining to do."

With that said, John once again picked the body up and decides to carry the guy back on his own.

* * *

Back at Chrometech, John waited patiently while watching on the monitors the cell the guy was placed in. Doktor stood at his side and watched as well; "I will say John, I am disappointed in you, you failed to keep the package safe and you failed to secure it once it was taken from you!" Doktor scolded John who gave the scientist a grinning death stare. "It's not my fault that whatever the package is, was a expensive... what was it?" Doktor sighed and explained, "It was a super chip, used to boost any computer's performance exponentially. I told the customer we will prepare a new one within the week. Why am I watching over those two?" Doktor pointed behind him at both Jubileena and Citrusella playing with some of the equipment that are safe for them.

John smirked and blushed, "About that... I promised Cheri that you will look after them in my place." Doktor did not look pleased, in fact he scolded John.

John laughed and turned away; Jubileena called him over and gave him a little gift, a hand made ring made completely from candy. "Why thank you, Jubs. May I ask why you are giving me this?" He questioned the gift; Jubileena put on a great big smile, "It's a friendship ring, I know you have one but I also want to give you one too." she continue to gleefully smile.

John the ring on his finger and thought to himself _"I have way too many rings right now."_

Doktor gained John's attention and directed him to the monitor; the thief has woken up and became confused at the room he's currently in. "I guess it's time to see why this guy had the idea to steal from us. I will be the one to interrogate him." John stated as he left the room and headed straight for the interrogation room.

John waited patiently in the room while the guards brought the thief to the room in chains. As they came in, he was seated and had the handcuffs locked to the table.

"Consider yourself lucky that you were able to live through all that chaos back at the construction site because of me. Now we can either take this the easy way or the hard way; the easy way, I will ask you the questions politely and you will answer them properly and truthfully; the hard way, I can beat those answers out of you until you cooperate. Do you understand?" John threatened the guy; rather than getting a response in words, the guy slightly nodded.

"First, let's start with your name." the guy responded with just his first name, "My name is Tsubasa." Tsubasa was around the same age as John, he has black hair and blue eyes. "Ok, Tsubasa... why did you steal that package and where did it go? It wasn't on you when I saved your worthless ass from that accident before."

"I don't exactly know why they wanted the stupid thing, I was just told to get it." John became confused, "They? Who's they?" As more questions were being asked, Tsubasa became annoyed until he eventually took over, "Look, I don't know who's calling the shots or why. I just do what they want to keep my brother alive, they have him and they will kill him if I refuse a request or ignore an objective."

John got up from his seat and sighed heavily, bending over with his hands pressed against the table, "Look, I don't know much about you or your brother, but if you want to see him again, you better start working with me here." Tsubasa made a piece of paper float out of his pocket and has it to land on the table; John takes a look at it and sees that it is a photo of Tsubasa's brother.

His brother was a young boy, he has Heterochromia Iridium with one eye being blue and the other red; his face was covered with freckles but that didn't mean anything towards him. "His name is Appollo. Our second name is Dreampoint." John gave the photo back to Tsubasa and sat down again; "I want to ask one more thing: what was that ability you pulled off back at the train and construction site?"

Outside the interrogation room, Doktor had a pen and notebook at the ready; "That was telekinesis, I use my mind to carry anything, make them levitate. My brother and I were in a accident many years ago which cost us our parents and we both were given these strange abilities; while mine is telekinesis, my brother can manipulate any source of light and make it into a weapon. However we both suffer should we use them for too long or too much, we will begin to suffer headaches, hallucinations, blurred visions. We would essentially become weak over the time of using our powers."

John sighed in sorrow; Tsubasa then mentions something vital, "When I got on the train, there was a guy waiting for me, I gave the package to him. He told me 'Come to warehouse 2 on Sunset Docks at 9:30PM.'"

The current time was 8:52PM and John got up from his seat to leave the interrogation room; "Stay with Doktor, I will go there now and get your brother back." John left the room and encountered Doktor on the way out.

"Are you going to the warehouse?" John nodded and requested his armor suit along with the new feature: stealth technology.

* * *

At the warehouse, John carefully opened the doors and moved inside as fast as possible. It was almost impossible to see him due to his suit having the stealth technology involved. John let Ally scan the area first before moving on.

 _"Zero heat signatures."_ Ally informed John, "What?" he looked further.

It was dark and the moonlight shining through the windows wasn't helping. John found a chair in the center of the warehouse with bits of rope around it. "Looks like someone was here before." John inspect the ropes for quite some time until nearby footsteps were heard.

"YA vizhu, chto krysa nakonets-to nashla svoy syr. Pochemu by vam ne bespokoit' kogo-to yeshche dlya raznoobraziya. (I see the rat has found its cheese. Why don't you go bother someone else for a change.)" Ivan stood above John on a platform and was spinning a knife around.

"Talk about yourself. Where is Appollo?" John demanded to know as he pointed Verdugo directly at him. Ivan chuckled and responded, "Don't worry about the kid, he's in a safe place right now. Originally I expected his gullible brother to take the bait, but this is rich."

John immediately became confused, "Bait?" Behind the crates came out three androids shaped like humans that charged after John at a fast speed.

The first android wielded a baton and struck at John with so much force, he could feel it through his armor; the second and third used their fists and feet to punch and kick John down. "ALLY!" John yelled at the top of his lungs; _"EMP grenades."_ One EMP grenade was ejected from the cybernetic arm and it caused the three androids to go haywire for a short period of time. John had his chance to escape to which he regained his sword.

The androids continued their chase and a 3v1 battle ensued. With his sword, John deflected their attacks but they kept forcing their attacks back at him with force; he eventually held out long enough for Ally to analyse their attack patterns and weaknesses.

 _"They are vulnerable under their arms; counter-attack and then strike."_ John kicked the baton android and the second fist fighter android away to deal with the first android. He flipped it upside down by tripping it up with Verdugo and slicing at the arms, then impale the sword inside through the missing arm to destroy it. The second fighter came to throw a punch but John eventually dodges it and swung the sword hard at the face to decapitate it and perform Zandatzu.

The baton android caught John off guard and knocked him down; it pulled a pipe out from the walls and attempted to impale it into John. With the perfect timing, John moved to the side to avoid the attack and trip the android up to then smash its head into the pipe, destroying it for good. Ivan has already escape the warehouse via chopper as John could see through the skylight.

"I wonder what that Russian dog is up to..."

* * *

Back at HQ, John found both Doktor and Tsubasa in the briefing room. "Did you find my brother?" Tsubasa was desperate to know but unfortunately for him, John shook his head, causing Tsubasa to explode in rage. "You had one job: find my brother and you failed! He's probably dead now because of you!" Tsubasa left the room in anger and John clenched his fist in anger too.

"Don't let him get to you John, he's just misses his brother." John sighed, "I know, I can relate to him but I know Appollo is still alive. Our old, mysterious friend Ivan has him and I know where he is keeping Appollo."

John saw Tsubasa on the monitor, he entered one of the rooms and sat down to hold his head at the same time of making the items around him levitate and shake violently to express his sadness. "Maybe if we go to rescue his brother together, that would cheer him up. But is he stable to go? I mean with his abilities, he would be helpful... but what if he blanks out from using his power?"

"Just bring him with you and watch out for him." Doktor commanded him, John nodded back and left to find Tsubasa.

He passed Cheri's office again and she was inside with her daughters; "Hey Cheri, how was the date?" John politely asked, she was hugging into a photo of James while Jubileena and Citrusella were looking at her equipment. "Oh John, it was the best date ever! James is such a polite and generous man." hearts were floating around her at a fast speed.

"Well, I'm glad you enjoyed yourself. Also, thank Doktor for watching over these two, not me." John was honest, he wouldn't lie for anything.

"I will still thank you for being here to help me." She kisses him on the cheek yet again which causes Jubileena to giggle and Citrusella to stare like if she loves John. The three were about to leave until John stopped Cheri, "Can I ask you something?" Cheri nodded. "If you had a sibling that you look out for, would you risk your whole life to save them, no matter the consequences?"

"If I had a brother or sister, I would do anything to keep them happy and yes, I would risk anything for them. Just like how I would risk anything to save my daughters." Cheri told him, they then left, leaving John to himself to think for a moment.

Tsubasa was sitting on his own with the items floating around him; John came in and the items began shaking violently again. "Tsubasa, I know how upset you are right now, but I need you to help me. Your brother is in danger and I know he is counting on you to save him, no matter what it takes. Will you help me?" The items fell to the floor and Tsubasa got up, "Fine, I'll help you... for my brother." John smirked and held his hand out to shake; Tsubasa shook his hand and the two formed a partnership.

* * *

John and Tsubasa arrived at Ivan's hideout while it was midnight. Rather than take this the stealthy way, the two forced entry to find a silo filled with acid and a chair levitated over the silo via chains; in the chair was Appollo who was tied to it with rope and he was unconscious.

"BROTHER!" Tsubasa yelled while running to save his brother. the chair began lowering slowly towards the silo when Ivan appeared behind a glass wall.

"What a pleasant surprise, Tsubasa has finally come to his senses to save his worthless brother." John shot at the glass which turned out to be bullet proof; "No need for violence, my friend. As of now, you have three minutes until the chair is completely disintegrated along with your brother. To spice things up, I have my loyal androids to keep you busy." With that said, ten androids came out to challenge the two while the chair continues to lower and Appollo awakens to see the trouble he is in. "Brother, help!"

The ten split to fight the two, 1v5 for each one.

Tsubasa attempted to use his telekinesis on the five he is up against but fails as they are strangely able to resist. To compensate, he found a katana inside a barrel nearby and use that for defence. John used his sword and EMP grenades to fight his five androids; the first two androids came running towards John to attack while a third attempts to hold him from behind. John stabbed the one behind him and swung it around like a bat, knocking it into the other two to send them flying into the walls nearby and the one on the sword into the acid (the acid splash doesn't hit Appollo).

The two androids got back up and one of them took John' sword away and threw it away so the others can begin their attack without being hit by his sword. John was held by one of them while the other three began punching him hard; a few objects were thrown at the androids by Tsubasa to free the blood covered John. "Thanks..." he spat blood out.

Tsubasa wasn't skilled with a bladed weapon as he kept swinging the katana around, hoping that he will eventually hit something but unfortunately for him, the androids kept dodging with ease. "Keep still you tin can!" he yelled in anger; Tsubasa channelled his rage into his telekinesis and was successfully able to control the androids.

"John, I need some help over here!" Tsubasa said as he swung the katana at one of the androids, destroying it; John got up and regained the strength to fight back.

The two stood back-to-back and kept the androids at a distance; each time one came to attack, the two would take turns to dismember each one until nothing was functional. The chair Appollo was tied to lowered further and was a minute away from entering the acid. To add more time, John threw Verdugo into the wall and Appollo was able to use it like a platform to prevent the chair from being lowered more.

By now, there are three androids left and each one formed together to construct a large, metallic abomination. "Oh great... you can take this one Tsubasa." John told him to which he argued, "Me?! Nuh uh! You can do this, I'm saving my brother." The two argued continuously despite having a walking death machine approaching them; "Stop arguing and pick, for God sake!" Appollo yelled at the two.

John shot an EMP grenade at the robot to disable it while Tsubasa took the opportunity to go for his brother. Tsubasa threw the katana at the chains, releasing the chair and using telekinesis to levitate the chair to safety so he can untie the ropes to free his brother. "Thanks bro." Appollo hugged his brother tightly, something he has never done in a while; "I will never let anyone harm you ever again, brother."

"Erm, guys... I need a hand here!" John was thrown around the room like a rag doll when the brothers took notice. Appollo gathered enough energy from the light within the room to form a ball of powerful energy, capable of burning through anything with force; he shot it directly at the heart of the robot which disintegrated the body area, causing it to stand motionless. John got back up and ran to perform a drop kick which sent the robot into the silo of acid, completely destroying it for good.

The three celebrated over victory which was short lived when they heard loud clapping. Ivan sarcastically clapped and congratulated them, "I must say, you two are quite the team. I am impressed, but not surprised as I know your every move. Now that I have the equipment I need and the data, I can move on to my next phase." The three could only stand and watch as Ivan walked back and forth slowly; "What phase? What the hell are you talking about?" John demanded.

Ivan chuckled and began exiting the room via elevator, he stood inside with the doors held open,"Only time will tell, my friend. Only time will tell." the doors slowly closed and the last thing the three could see was Ivan's unpleasant smirk.

Time has passed and the three made it back to Chrometech but before they left the hideout, they could see Ivan's chopper leaving.

* * *

They were in Chrometech; Appollo was being fed food along with his brother while John and Doktor watched from a distance.

"I think it would be better if they and my girlfriend moved into the castle now, get them out of your way." John suggested; Vanellope was able to include more rooms into the castle. "I would agree. Though I will need to run some tests on these two to see what caused them to have their 'abilities'." Doktor responded.

Tsubasa came over to John, "Hey John, I would like to say thanks for helping me save my brother. I know I was an asshole for stealing from you and trying to kill you, but I owe you." John placed his hand on Tsubasa's shoulder and responded, "Don't sweat it. I had my reasons to help. Just promise me you will take good care of your brother."

"I will, thanks John." Tsubasa said before returning to his brother to comfort him. John yawned out loud and planned to leave the room; "Where are you going?" Doktor asked while laughing, "I'm going to bed, it's been a long day."

John only got as far as half the hallway before falling asleep on the ground, causing the three in the room to burst out into laughter.

* * *

 **I would like to thank a great friend of mine who gave me the permission to use her two characters, Tsubasa and and Appollo Dreampoint. I actually enjoyed making this chapter with two OCs belonging to my friend as I have more to work with than just making one.**

 **This is S3AN06 signing off, thank you for reading and adios!**


	32. Dededespicable King

**When a king takes over Vanellope's castle, she relies on John to deal with the problem.**

* * *

Within the briefing room at Chrometech, John and Candlehead sat side-by-side, twiddling their thumbs simultaneously. They stared at a bare wall directly in front of them with a blank expression on their faces. No sound to be heard within the room except the faint talking down the hallway outside.

Candlehead ceased her twiddling to broke the silence, "How long will it take?" She questioned the boy as he continues to twiddle, followed by a sigh. "I don't know..." He mumbled with great uncertainty. "I like this wall. It's a very nice wall." John jokingly comments, raising his right arm and flattening his hand upright as if he was touching the wall.

John resumed, yawning loudly in the process. Candlehead slowly monitored the room in hopes of searching for something interesting; she stopped at the sight of something to her left and she nudges John's shoulder to gain his attention.

"Look at that!" She exclaimed, pointing at something resembling a snowboard. Candlehead got out of her seat and ran towards the peculiar object. Without a care in the world, Candlehead pressed a button at the bottom of the board, causing it to activate.

The board automatically began hovering on the spot where John took a moment to think and began smirking at the little girl. "Yo, C-head. Thinking what I'm thinking?"

Down in Doktor's office, the scientist is managing files on his desk while talking to James; Doktor put the files into a folder and closed it, with _'Missing Convict'_ written at the top.

"We are still trying to figure out where he might be hiding, Dok. I already got two squads doing reconnaissance on his base in Green Hill and Metropolis and reports show no recent activity." James reported to Doktor. Dok sighed and responded, "He probably knows we're onto him. We will need to track him down before he executes any of his plans."

During the response, the two left the office and walked down the long hallway towards the briefing room. "If we are going to track him down, we will need Sonic's help, and possibly John's should we fail to contact the former." James proposed the idea with Doktor soon agreeing with it.

"I doubt John will be unable to track him down alone, but we will have them both assist the search squad." Doktor finally said. "Understood, sir." James responded, placing his hand on the doorknob to the briefing room.

As the two walk in, they saw John flying around on the hover board whereas Candlehead stood on the table, cheering him on.

"John, what are you doing?! Get down from there!" Doktor demanded, causing Candlehead to slowly climb off the table and John to lower down and deactivate the board. "Sorry Dok, got bored waiting for you."

While Doktor and James approached the front of the room, the latter snatched the hover board from John's hands and places it back where he found it while Doktor turned on the main monitor.

"The hover board is not a toy, John. It is a prototype for future missions." The scientist informed as he turned to place the folder down on the table. John brought it over to himself and Candlehead so they can open it to see the files within. "What's this? My next mission or something?" John asked as he read the first sentence.

On the monitor, a recording from the cell area was showing and in it, a guard was knocked unconscious by Eggman who then took the keys and unlocked his own cell before escaping the area.

"Last night, Dr. Eggman has broken out after knocking one of our guards out with a wrench and using a custom made explosive to escape through the loading bay. We have no clue on how he made this bomb, where he may be hiding or what he is planning next, but I can't sit back and wait for it to happen." Doktor narrated over the footage.

John stopped reading the files, Candlehead took them to continue reading. "How did he get the wrench? You know what? Never mind. You want me to look for him, don't you?" He interrogated.

Doktor nodded and responds, "Correct. We will also contact Sonic to assist you in locating Eggman, and hopefully, we will find him before he begins his next possible plan." James left the room while taking out a two-way radio.

John got out of his seat as so did Candlehead and they both slowly left the room. "I will see what I can do IF I get a lead on his whereabouts." John finally said before he and Candlehead left the briefing room.

Doktor stood in silence, watching as the two walked down the hallway close together like a father and child. The old scientist collected up the files left in a mess by the little ditzy girl and as he did this, John ran back down to the room, peaking his head around the door.

"By the way, that's a very nice wall there!" He humorously said, leaving Doktor awkwardly confused before fleeing.

* * *

Walking along the swirly bridge leading to the castle, John and Candlehead notice that Vanellope and her guards were sitting outside. "Hey guys. What's up?" John politely asked the little president who retorted rather quickly, "Some fat royal wannabe took over MY castle and kicked me out in the dirt like a unwanted guest!"

John is left standing there with his eyes widened and himself and Candlehead shocked at Vanellope's temper. "Who? What does he look like?" The boy further questioned as other racers approach from behind the two.

"I don't know and I don't care! I want him gone and my castle back!" Vanellope furiously demanded, causing John to grimace as he comically rushed towards the castle entrance and bust through the doors.

Upon entering the castle, John was immediately surrounded by an assortment of monsters with the one person responsible for taking over the castle sitting on the throne. He appears to be a large penguin-like character dressed in royal clothing and read coat, holding a big wooden mallet in his hand and resting it on his stomach.

"Who do you think you are here, busting into my castle?!" The penguin stood up, yelling down at John who drew his sword from his back.

"I'm mister main character and I am here to kick butt and give my friend her castle back." John sarcastically announced, clearing acting heroic like usual. The penguin leaped in the air and down towards John, readying his mallet to slam.

Though John successfully dodged the oncoming attack, he did not see the lightning strike from one of the monsters zap him from behind, momentarily stunning him.

Two small swordsmen charged at the downed John who quickly got back up to block their attacks and kicking one down and slashing the other. The penguin surprised him with a powerful swing from the mallet, sending John flying across the room towards the wall. The impact was so much, it shattered most of the wall. The leader of the monsters ran to continue beating John up as he fell to the floor before jumping away.

John made the attempt to stand up again, when a creature on all four pounces on him, trying to scratch at his face. John grunts in pain when he placed his feet underneath the monster and put all force into kicking it off of him. This time, he finally stood up and watches as all the monsters slowly circle him against the wall, leaving him unable to fight back against them all.

 _"John, quickly use a stun grenade!"_ Ally suddenly instructed, readying the grenade within John's cybernetic arm. The boy covered his eyes and aimed down at the ground before shooting it out; the bright flash blinded all the monsters and their leader temporarily, giving John the time to limp his way out of the castle. The same monster that zapped John was quickly to recover from the stun blast and made another charge shot of lightning at the ground behind John which launched him out far.

The moment John made contact with the ground outside, he passed out.

* * *

When he came to, John found himself covered in bandages and laying in a hospital bed.

"Good, you're awake!" Cheri gladly exclaimed, sitting on the side of the bed. John's vision blurred, his head ringing in pain and his body riddled with bruises and bandages. "How long was I out?" John mumbled his question out, unable to focus with the headache.

"Just for a few hours. Lucy has been worried about you when she saw you come in here earlier." Cheri nods to his left as he turns to see Lucy fast asleep in a chair. The girl has been sitting beside him since his arrival and clearly shows concern for him. John gently placed his hand on hers while trying not to disturb her sleep.

He felt the warmth of her hand until he notices she was still holding onto a handkerchief she used to wipe tears out of her eyes.

John tried to sit up and get out of bed while groaning in pain; Cheri quickly came in to stop him by holding him down, "John, what are you doing? You can't leave in this condition, let alone stand up."

The attempt was futile. He decided to listen and remain in the bed, knowing he won't get far in the condition he's unfortunate to be in. "Someone has to deal with that guy stealing Vanellope's castle." John insisted. Doktor came into the room after overhearing the conversation.

"You must really have a death wish if you think you can take on Dedede all by yourself in that condition. We saw the whole thing through our security drone that we have monitoring the castle every hour." Doktor informed the injured boy who responded, "I recognise that name. An old game I use to own on my Game Boy... Toby's World was it?"

The German scientist chuckles, "Correction. Kirby's Dream Land. Dedede appears to be leading an army of monsters and strangely took over your little friend's castle, claiming it for his own to rule." John held his hand on his head in pain, causing Cheri to fill a cup up with water and give him painkillers to help ease the pain.

"Yeah, I figured that out... it's those monsters of his that are the problem. One of them zapped my ass twice and the rest will get in my way." he rudely stated.

John took the painkillers and held them on his tongue before taking a sip from the cup to swallow them easily.

"That's why I made a little improvement to your suit." Doktor said as he handed the boy a small piece of paper with so much written on it, it was hard for him to make out due to the slightly blurred vision of his. "Capable of absorbing lightning and is fireproof, you should be able to stand a chance against Kracko." Doktor added.

The abundance of words was beginning to put John to sleep. Doktor took the paper back and proceeded to walk out of the room while talking still,"You should rest now and hopefully be back up and ready soon to set things right. That's IF our men fail to storm the castle and take it back." With that said, Doktor left the room as Cheri closed the door behind him.

Finally, John fell asleep.

A week flew by and during that week, a lot has happened. John was getting many visits by his friends and his girlfriend who tended to his care, helping him through his pains. The assault on Dedede and his monsters was a disaster as the soldiers struggle to make it inside with Kracko protecting the entrance.

One night, John had a nightmare. He was trapped in a small room with no doors or windows, no way in or out; John was all alone. The walls, floor and ceiling were white and every five minutes, the room would rotate and strangely, he would be unable to move as an invisible force prevents him from standing up. He fell to all sides of the room like a rag doll and if that wasn't bad enough, his mouth was gone. Soon, the room ceased to rotate as Kracko suddenly materialised above the frightened boy, constantly zapping him with painful shocks.

John was tossing and turning in his sleep the whole night.

* * *

After finally recovering from the injuries, John took it upon himself to travel to Kirby's game in hopes of finding the little pink hero. He was assisted by Candlehead on his journey to the game.

When they arrive there, the scenery was as beautiful as they expected. Green fields with trees and other animals and a small dome shaped house beside a single tree. Both John and Candlehead slowly approach the house to begin their search for Kirby there.

John knocked three times on the door to no answer. "Kirby, are you home?" he called out to no response.

"I hope he's in. I just wanna pinch those cheeks of his! He's sooo cute!" Candlehead joyfully exclaimed, smiling with delight as John raises an eyebrow at the girl.

With one last option, he turned the doorknob and the door opened. They both enter uninvited to an empty home. All that was to be found was a fireplace, a small wooden stool and a neatly made bed. "I guess he's not here..." they then left the house and stood outside, out of ideas.

"The one you seek isn't here." a small, mask wearing character said while standing on a branch in the tree next to the house. He looks like Kirby by size and appearance, but was of a dark blue colour and wore a cape that he covered his body with.

"You know Kirby?" Candlehead asked, confused at the Kirby look-a-like who spoke with a Spanish accent, "Maybe, maybe not. What is your business here?"

John reveals their intentions to the masked individual, "We need Kirby's help. Someone by the name of Dedede has taken over my friend's castle with an army of monsters and getting past them is difficult without Kirby's help." The individual hummed, followed by complete silence until he spoke up.

"The king has been acting strange the last I saw him... Kirby hasn't been seen since three days ago." John and Candlehead looked at each other vaguely worried.

"Then maybe you will help us convince your king that what he is doing is wrong?" John pleaded, to which the masked individual turned his back towards the two before saying his final words, "I have my own matters to attend to..."

Suddenly, he vanishes in a blink of an eye, leaving the two rather disappointed.

* * *

Unfortunately, they return to Chrometech with no assistance from Kirby or that masked guy. Rather than practice on VR, John took the new suit and armed himself with whatever weapons he could find.

"You're seriously not thinking about going back to the castle alone, are you?" Candlehead questions as she watches John preps himself, to which he replies with a confident thumbs up.

Candlehead remains silent, knowing she will be unable to alter John's choice.

He gathered the weapons he needed and was about to leave for the castle, not before turning around to face Candlehead and finally saying, "If anyone asks, tell them 'I'll be back'."

As John was leaving, Candlehead rolled her eyes.

* * *

It was stormy above the castle as thunder roared through the skies and lightning struck down around the castle.

John saw as a small eyeball reveals itself within the clouds, looking directly down at the boy who took the time to retaliate with an RPG to the eye. The rocket missed as the eye travels around the clouds.

"Right, yer bastard!" John activated the suit's thrusters and took off for the clouds. The eye continues to move around while John was in pursuit.

He loaded another rocket into the RPG during the flight and held on to it until he had a clear shot, though he lost track of the eye during the reloading process. "Where is it...?" He ponders, looking around thoroughly for the eyeball. John suddenly came to a stop when he made it to the center of the massive cloud.

Far behind him, the eye targets the boy and strikes him with so much lightning; the suit absorbs the lightning which in turn charges up the suit and the plasma cannons at the hands. John quickly made a 180 degree turn and fired the rocket as well as firing a plasma shot at the rocket to cause it to explode once it reached a close distance to Kracko. The explosion only removed most of the cloud Kracko was using as a "shell" but also did minor damage to it too.

Realising it has no chance on winning, Kracko makes the final attempt to ram into John, hoping the impact would damage his armor.

"My turn." John faced the palms of his hands towards each other and slowly but effectively created a ball of plasma powerful enough to destroy a bunker from the inside. He threw it like a dodge ball at Kracko and the connection caused the plasma ball to explode, killing Kracko for good.

The blast radius was too much for John to withstand as it damages the suit and disables the thrusters. "Oh crap..."

John plummeted directly on top of the castle and crashed through the roof. He landed on one of the many monsters in the throne room which broke his fall; all the monsters looked on in surprise.

"Sup, guys? Care to dance?" John cockily taunted. Denjaa, a small monster that looks like a purple bag, began tossing bombs at the boy, causing him to get up and run around while luring the monster to throw more bombs at the others.

Dedede sat on the throne in watch with a face of anger, "How dare he come falling in my castle and make a fool outta these monsters!"

One last bomb was thrown at John who took the time to retaliate by drawing his sword and swinging it like a baseball bat to hit the bomb back, defeating Denjaa.

WolfWrath, the creature on all fours and covered in red fur with a glowing green gem encrusted in its forehead, pounces from atop a pile of downed monsters down onto John. Though successful, WolfWrath wasn't done as he began spewing out fireballs at John's face which the suit protecting him from the fire. "First, a _shocking_ fight against an eye in the sky. Now I'm getting a face full of fire. Time to fight fire with fire!" John extends his arm out and punches the monster off of him before getting up.

"Get him, WolfWrath!" Dedede demanded. The monster roars in response while John unpinned a grenade and threw it in its mouth seconds before exploding. "Hey, no fair! That's cheating!" the crazy king accused loudly, with John having a sarcastic reply, "It's more like teaching a dog how to play fetch. I guess your pet never learned to give you paw."

Angered, Dedede steps in to battle the strong boy to a mallet on sword battle. Before they could commence however, a new player steps up to the field.

A small, round pink being leaps in the way and confronts the king. "Well, well, well, if it ain't Kirby! What you gonna do, pinkie?" As the king taunts, Kirby inhales a small hammer nearby that one of the monsters dropped, turning him into Hammer Kirby.

"I see... Kirby, you can take Dedede. Leave the others to me!" John instructed as he rushes to battle a random monster.

Dedede took the first swing with Kirby jumping over it and slamming his mallet down on the king's head; the king growled in frustration as he quickly recovers from the attack. They both swung their mallets at each other, making them clash like swords.

The pink hero spins around twice with the mallet extended out, hitting Dedede in the stomach and causing the latter to leap high up in the air and slam down on top of Kirby and positioning him like a golf ball before striking the pink ball across the room, causing him to bounce off the walls like a bouncy ball. "Poyo..." Kirby mumbles in pain as he looks up at the ensuing battle between John and the monsters.

Dedede displays a wide grin as he charges with the mallet above his head. Kirby makes the quick move to roll out of the way as the king slams down and misses and watches in confusion as Kirby jumps onto the head of one of the monsters to gain height and throw the mallet at Dedede who screamed at the oncoming projectile.

The hard hitting dazes the king as he spirals on the spot with small stars spinning around his head before falling to the ground.

John and the monsters look on as Kirby rushes over to the fallen king worried. "Poyo!" Kirby cries as he pats constantly on Dedede's side, hoping he will wake up. What came next was unexpected and disturbing to the two.

Dedede's body suddenly floats to the air as a black aura surrounds his body; Dedede remains motionless and knocked out during this. The blackness ejects itself from the king and forms a ball that spawns itself with orange spheres around it and an eye in the center. Both Kirby and John look at it, shocked and confused and Dedede drops to the floor still unconscious.

"What the hell..." John utters to which he hears a familiar voice to his side, "That's Dark Matter. An entity so evil, it despises life to the deepest of its core." It was Meta Knight who was watching the battle and reveal from behind a pillar.

As Meta Knight emerges, Dark Matter sneaks in an attack on Kirby, using a dark energy beam, hurting the small Star Warrior.

"Kirby!" John shrieks as he watches Kirby lose his ability. He goes to help but is restrained by Meta Knight, "No, we should let Kirby fight this one." John reluctantly agrees and the two watch.

Kirby slowly stands back up, more angry than before, and tries to rush at Dark Matter with no plan in mind. Dark Matter spawns black spheres as projectiles to launch at Kirby, hurting him more. The pink hero struggles to stand as more dark energy beams to strike him down. Dark Matter then ascends through the roof of the castle and escapes to the skies.

Making one final attempt, Kirby regains enough energy to stand and watch as the chaos takes place above.

"Quick, the sword!" Meta Knight instructs, looking down at a sword for John to pick up. After picking the small sword up, John calls out for Kirby's attention before throwing the sword at him, allowing him to inhale it and become Sword Kirby. Kirby inhaled enough air to puff up like a balloon and float up through the roof.

Dark Matter begins to expand in size, almost taking over the castle within its shadow in the process. Kirby came face-to-face with the dark entity for the final battle.

It fires more dark beams at the little warrior to which Kirby dodges them perfectly. The next set of spheres that were launched at Kirby, he deflects them back to sender, damaging Dark Matter. This continued on for a short time as Dark Matter soon displays its near defeat.

Kirby raises the sword above his head and a light engulfs the surface of the blade; Kirby slashes down, causing his own sword beam to strike Dark Matter down the middle.

The final attack causes the dark monstrosity to implode violently before vanishing for good.

Upon returning to the ground, all the remaining monsters flee in desperation after witnessing Kirby defeat their true leader. John cheers on the victor while Meta Knight silently nods.

Dedede wakes up all dazed and confused and questions the three, "Huh? Where am I? Why does my head feel like it's ringing badly?" Kirby joyfully dances as Meta Knight explains.

"You were under Dark Matter's influence until Kirby drove it out of you." Upon hearing this, Dedede picks up Kirby and hugs him tightly, much to Kirby's confusion.

As time passes by, Vanellope and her guards and the racers return to the castle where she confronts Dedede. "I'm sorry I kicked you out of your castle, little girly. Can we forget it and move on?" The king pleaded, arms crossed behind his back rather than clasped together in front.

Vanellope agrees, offering to shake on it to which Dedede returns the favour. After that, Kirby, Meta Knight and Dedede left Sugar Rush to return to their game. Vanellope then order her guards and other workers to help repair the castle.

"You did it, John!" Candlehead cheerfully exclaims as she and John fist bump, causing their friendship rings to glow.

"I couldn't have done it without Kirby's help. He was the real hero here." John gladly said as they walked away from the castle. Their conversation was eventually cut off when John received an incoming call on his codec from Doktor.

He answers the call and speaks causally, "What's up Dok? Decided to call me to congratulate me?" Candlehead giggles as John winks.

"This isn't the time to mess on, boy. We have just received intel on Eggman's whereabouts!" Doktor reveals as the two looked at one another surprised. They soon start running for the exit as John finally says before hanging up, "Send me the location now. We're on our way!"

* * *

 **After such a long time, I have decided to return to write more fanfiction and to finish these stories off for good. However, I will be deleting two stories, those being Devil May Cry 5 and John Colours. Reasons for this is because I honestly have no official idea on how to progress the story with the former to what I originally had planned and the latter wasn't really needed for this current story as it is basically retelling Sonic Colours but with John and the racers. A waste of time, really.**

 **For those that were wanting to see DMC5 be complete, I apologise. As for those who are wondering why I was absent most of the time, it was because I had too much to do with college and all the assignments as well as personal reasons at home and I really wanted to take a break during the summer and only just thought about returning to fanfiction during October.**

 **Good news for this story, I am near the end, though I won't say how far from it I am. I will try to upload weekly if I can for each story and as a bonus, a new fanfiction project I am working on is called Sonic: Dystopia.**

 **It honestly feels good to be back here, I missed out on so many good stories as well as those who enjoy the ones I make. This is S3AN06 signing out! Adios!**


	33. The Diabolical Doctors of Evil

**After his escape, Dr. Eggman has joined forces with another evil doctor to conquer the arcade.**

* * *

Thanks to Sonic, John and Candlehead were able to find where he has located Eggman. They arrive at the base of Scrap Brain Zone, where they see Sonic confront the evil doctor.

"So this is where you were all this time?!" John madly proclaims as he Candlehead stood by Sonic's side and watch as one of Eggman's large mechs carry out multiple large containers on a gigantic cargo airship.

Letting out an evil laugh, Eggman points towards them and speaks "That's what you think! I have been very busy since my escape, and I have big plans. Not even you three are capable of stopping us!" The three gave each other confusing looks as Sonic interrogates " _Us_? Who else are you working with, Egghead?"

Before responding, Eggman confidentially strokes his moustache, "That's none of your concern. Soon, our plan will commence and there will be no way of stopping us from taking what's rightfully ours! Oh ho ho ho!"

Eggman quickly pressed a button on the console of the Egg Mobile, shooting out a missile from the front down at the three. It detonates in midair, unleashing a bright flash of light that blinds the three, allowing Eggman to escape with the cargo.

When Eggman was gone, the three regain their sightings. "I don't like the sound of that. If Eggman claims to be working with someone as evil and _'smart'_ as he is, this can't be good." John admits, afraid it might be true.

Sonic turns around and walks away with John and Candlehead in tow. "What are we going to do, guys?" Candlehead fearfully asks to which John answers "Let's head back to HQ."

They soon leave the game and return back to Chrometech to figure out what Eggman plans may be.

* * *

Meanwhile inside a laboratory, a group of robots and other scientist clones gather around a stage as a short doctor with a large yellow head, black side hair and a big "N" on his forehead came up from the center of the stage to address to his minions.

"Is this thing on?" He questions, tapping the microphone attached to the earpiece. His voice came through a pair of large speakers on each side of the stage.

"Finally. Attention, my ungrateful, putrid slaves! For so long has that wretched bandicoot been foiling my plans for world domination! It sickens me that a lowlife, flea-ridden rodent such as Crash is able to stop us from conquering the world every time, truly a thorn in my side. But not this time, baby! This time, Cortex strikes back!" After saying this, the crowd cheers on the evil madman until they were silent.

Taking out a remote control from his pocket, Cortex points it towards one of the main monitors behind him and displayed was an image of a humongous robot that barely resembles the doctor.

"This plan of mine will ensure that not even Crash Bandicoot can stop us from taking over. I proudly present to you all, the Doominator!" Cortex stands in a heroic pose, hands at the hips while his minions continue to cheer.

Another voice, though deep and menacing, overtook all the clapping and a floating wooden mask accompanied the evil doctor on stage, "Cortex! What kind of name is that to give to such a tremendous design of power?! You want to give it a name of pure destruction and chaos, not a name for a cereal box toy!"

Without looking, Cortex shrugs his shoulders and says "I don't see you coming up with any better names. Anyway..."

Another press on the remote brings up three separate images, one of Wumpa Island, another of Chrometech, and finally the Game Central Station.

"With the Doominator, we will rid of that bothersome bandicoot here on Wumpa Island. Then, we will trash the Chrometech facility, ridding any possible threats from interfering with our plans. Finally, the arcade will see our display of power and will bow down or face the consequences for denying our rule. The arcade will be ours!" Cortex narrates as he reveals the plan to his minions.

"And joining us..." A final press on the remote, Cortex aims it towards the side of the stage where the ground opens up and one individual came up an elevator. "The one, the only, Dr. Eggman!" Cortex added as all spotlights aim down at the doctor.

As Eggman approaches the front, the crowd also begins to cheer.

"It will be my pleasure to assist you in conquering the arcade, your horribleness!" Eggman " _politely_ " insisted to his new partner who also responds with his own " _kindness_ ", "Why thank you, your rottenness!"

As time passes, Eggman and Cortex begin the final construction on the Doominator.

"With the materials from my base, we will be able to upgrade the Doominator's weapons exponentially. I will however need something that I lack: Metal Sonic. The last time I received reports was before that two-tailed mutant fox boy reprogrammed him." Eggman implores.

From the side of the room, two large, anthropomorphic animals came forth: Tiny Tiger and Dingodile.

"I will send Tiny and Dingodile to retrieve what you need." Cortex generously offers, looking at a hologram image of Metal Sonic and the coordinates where he is currently positioned.

* * *

John, Candlehead and Sonic have finally returned to Chrometech where they sit with Doktor in the briefing room.

"Do you have any idea who this other person may be?" Doktor questions the three as they sat there, responding with shaking their heads. "No, and we couldn't follow him either. He got away with a surprise attack." John informs the old man.

Sonic was relaxing with his legs up on the table crossed together which Doktor seemingly scolds him with a disappointed look. "Egghead thinks that teaming up with someone is gonna stop me from foiling his plans. He's done it before and it failed then, so this one isn't different either." The hedgehog explained.

"If we don't stop them, they could injure many people. It doesn't matter if this one is different from past battles. What really matters is keeping those that don't want any involvement with this out of harm's way." John told Sonic who simply responds with a thumbs up.

Suddenly, a call from Tails came through on the comms, though buggy, "Soni- help me- I'm bei- -tacked..."

Everyone looked at each other shocked as the comms cut out. Knowing Tails is in immediate danger, the three got out of their seats and ran out of the room.

* * *

At Tails' workshop, there were a large group of minions and badniks attacking the exterior of the workshop, lead by two large animals.

"Tiny crush puny fox!" The tiger yells, running at the workshop with a trident in hand. Many of the minions were throwing beakers filled with comical green acid at the walls, slowly burning through the wood.

Tails inside worries as he tries to work something on his laptop. "Come on... come on... work with me!" he utters, typing so fast while trying to stay focused.

When he finally accomplished his task, he pressed hard on the enter key which brought on a shield around his workshop.

All of the minions cease throwing their beakers when they realise that they can't break through. Dingodile came forth with his flamethrower and as he aims it, he cackles "Lil' foxy thinks he's gonna keep our hands off his mits, well he's gonna have to try harder than this shield!"

Cranking it up to the max, he lets out the fire and a powerful blast engulfs most of the shield, damaging it heavily.

Soon, the shield came down as too much energy went into using it and Tails' workshop was revealed to the enemies, allowing them to make their attempt to break inside.

Tails loses all hope in his defences and cowers, "Please Sonic, help me!" Tails cries when one of the badniks broke in and was seconds away from firing.

Suddenly, a loud bang was heard behind the fox. Tails turns to see what it was and to his surprise, it was Sonic. "Sonic, you came!" Tails jumped up and hugged his best friend for comfort, smiling to know he is safe.

"I would never let anyone harm you, buddy. Quickly, find a safe place to hide and leave everything to us!" Sonic patted his buddy on the shoulder before boosting back out. Tails nods and runs with his laptop to hide behind his desk.

Sonic ran around to boost and home-attack into random badniks that were close to the workshop while John came in to battle in his armor suit, taking on the minions.

"Yo, Sonic, I think I might know who Baldy McNosehair is working with!" John yells as he implies. "Who?" Sonic asks, kicking a set of badniks into others.

John swings his sword at the minions, knocking them down with each slash and using his arm cannons on nearby enemies. "Clones that look the same. Two mutated animals with weapons. These belong to Dr. Neo Cortex from Crash Bandicoot! I use to play the game when I was young." The boy informs as he is confronted by one of the two animals.

"TINY SMASH YOU!" The tiger roared, slamming the trident down where John stood as he dodges it. Tiny swings the trident and barely scratches the armor suit.

In retaliation, John slashes down at the large tiger but misses. "You too slow for Tiny!" He chuckles before charging his entire body into the boy, ramming him into the workshop. "I'm ok..." John mumbles when Tiny picks up his body and throws him back outside.

To his right, Tiny saw a deactivated Metal Sonic laying on a table and without hesitation, he snatches the blue robot and runs out.

"Tiny has shiny robot!" He exclaimed, waving Metal in the air like a toy. Seeing this, Dingodile places his fingers into his mouth and whistles, "Time to book it, mates!" Soon, all the enemies make a retreat.

Sonic quickly took notice and gives chase "Hey, where do you think you guys are going?!" Tails also follows behind while John slowly pulls himself out the workshop.

"Candlehead, get on my back and hold on!" John commands the girl who came out of hiding and runs to climb on his back. She held on while John begins to hover and fly away, following Sonic and Tails as they chase after Tiny and Dingodile.

After a long chase through the terrain, Dingodile stops dead in his tracks and observes the on-coming heroes. "Tiny, take that thing back to Cortex. Everyone, with me! Let's roast these pests!" Dingodile turns up the heat on the flamethrower again as he and the others wait for the heroes to arrive. Tiny continues to run off with Metal Sonic in hand.

John stops a safe distance away to let Candlehead down to hide. When he was flying towards them again, John puts all power into the thrusters and prepares to land a punch, "EAT FIST, YOU UGLY MUTANT!"

Dingodile aimed the barrel of the flamethrower towards the boy and pressed down on the trigger, blasting another set of fire which only deflected John back.

"My turn!" Sonic yelled, running past John and taking over. He jumps in the air and home-attacks the tall pyromaniac, knocking Dingodile back. "Get out the butter! Gonna make toast!" Dingodile taunts as he lowers the power on his flamethrower; all the badniks and minions soon join in the battle.

From the distance, a orange-furred bandicoot watches the ongoing battle.

John lands to fight, taking out his sword. Tails hides with Candlehead and the two watch while trying not to draw attention to themselves.

A small group of scientist minions surround the boy, they hold small plasma guns in their hands and begin shooting, while John takes them on one-by-one. Shortly after defeating four of them, the rest run away in fear while John chased after them like a uncontrollable dog.

Sonic ran circles around Dingodile as he too began firing plasma shots from his weapon which also has that feature. Sonic kept attacking when there was a window until Dingodile had enough, "Right, now you gone and done it! Time to crank up the heat!"

He slams the barrel into the ground and lets out another blast, a barrier of fire that surrounds the pyromaniac, preventing Sonic from hitting him.

"Sonic, I need your help! NOW!" John demands as he being chased by a group of badniks. He helps out by boosting into them while John retaliates with cutting up the robots.

Dingodile remains untouchable from inside the barrier and he takes advantage of this by taking potshots at the two, often hitting his own in the process.

Tails and Candlehead stay far behind cover. The former had his laptop with him and began searching through some files when Candlehead politely asked a question "What are you doing?" The two-tailed fox rushes through the files and replies "I wonder why they want Metal Sonic back. Maybe there's something in Metal's data that I missed?"

The cover they were behind was suddenly destroyed by one of the many plasma shots, spreading rock and dust all over that stun the two.

"Gotcha now!" Dingodile took aim and fires at the two. John was pinned down and Sonic was too late to realise as the plasma projectile was mere seconds away from hitting Candlehead.

"NO!" Tails screams as he covers Candlehead with himself, willing to take the hit.

Sonic ran to try and get in the way of the shot as well, but wasn't fast enough. Suddenly, an orange creature spun in the way and knock the projectile back to sender, knocking Dingodile out.

When they soon learn that nothing happened to them both, Tails and Candlehead look to see who their saviour was this time, it was none other than Crash Bandicoot!

"Thanks, Tails!" Candlehead hugged him for protecting her; Tails blushes and smiles as Sonic came over to pat him on the back.

All of the badniks flee at the sight of Crash while the clones were also out cold. The four surround Crash who gave them all an awkward smile. "I recognise him. That's Crash Bandicoot!" John exclaims. Instead of responding, Crash turns around and approaches Dingodile's unconscious body.

"How will we wake him up?" Candlehead questions the lot as they look down. John got onto his knee and places his cybernetic arm next to the unconscious animal, allowing Ally to extend a non-lethal wire to shock him awake.

John pins Dingodile down while Sonic interrogates him with Crash tensing his fist and acting like a big threat. "Where is your friend taking Metal Sonic? Where is Eggman hiding? What is his plan?" The hedgehog bombarded Dingodile with questions.

Dingodile himself was quick to answer, "Good ol' Dr. Cortex and his new mate sent us to snatch that metal rodent for somethin' important. He's busy takin' sights in his airship over Wumpa Island where they plan to use their humongous robot to smash you all into mincemeat! There's nothin' you all can do to stop his plans."

Though he spilled the plans, John still punches him in the face and demands more from him, "Tell us how we can stop their plan, or I will take your weapon and burn you alive!"

Before answering, Dingodile spat to his side, nearly hitting John's face. "Not the face, mate! N. Gin's ship is supplyin' nukes as weapons for the robot while a factory on Wumpa Island is craftin' materials to construct the thing. Cortex plans to use his space station as a _guardian angel_ over his contraption once it's complete. Like I said, you can't stop him!"

Tensing his cybernetic fist, John was about to hit him again across the face but stopped inches away. Another wire came out of the arm and shocked the animal hybrid again, this time knocking him out.

"Well, that could've been worse..." Tails bluntly utters as the gang walked away.

* * *

Inside what was left of Tails' workshop, the group rest while discussing their next move.

"So, what's the plan?" Sonic questions, watching his buddy reconnect his laptop back up and bring up information. John comes forth with a plan in mind, "Since you don't like getting your feet wet, Sonic, we'll leave N. Gin's ship to Crash. Candlehead and I will take on that factory while you will deal with the space station. We could be walking into a trap, but I doubt they will be prepared for us if we strike fast."

Crash lets out a gibberish sound while giving a thumbs up at the idea. "Alright then, let's do it to it!" Sonic confidently says, nodding in the process.

* * *

 **I figure leave this chapter short and easy so that the next chapter focuses on their plans of sabotage. The idea of this chapter came into mind after watching a parody video on YouTube involving Cortex and Robotnik working together and using the Doominator.**

 **How is everyone enjoying December recently? This year has gone by so fast, it's amazing that it is almost Christmas!**

 **Anyway, this is S3AN06 signing out, adios!**


	34. The Valiant Heroes of Good

**After their encounter with Dingodile, the three heroes head out to put a stop to the diabolical pair that is Dr. Eggman and Dr. Cortex.**

* * *

Standing on the snowy grounds outside N. Gin's battleship, Crash looks up at the long, huge ship with his usual goofy smile.

Crash ran inside and the first thing he expected were a few penguins with rockets attached to their backs. They all saw as their nemesis came running in and they return with a dark, angry expression before launching themselves at the anthropomorphic bandicoot.

They came down on top of him like raindrops and exploded upon contact with the ground as Crash dodges to the side.

Crash continues inwards as many large gears acted as platforms for him to jump across and many crates to spin into, dropping out wumpa fruits. The bandicoot came to a large room when the ground opened up and below were countless missiles ready to launch out.

Some of the missiles came out and left the ship through the open roof while a few suddenly hovered in place, popping out springs on top for Crash to bounce on.

The room had extra missiles laying around unused, with the internal parts missing so they don't explode. More penguins await Crash as they begin to attack; one struck him hard and knocking the unfortunate bandicoot down.

He shook it off like it was nothing but a bug bite and continued to proceed further through the ship, overcoming many of the obstacles in his way.

At the bottom of a long hallway was an open door with a heavenly light peaking in and as Crash dashes for the door, the ground gave in as he fell through.

The bandicoot landed in another hallway when suddenly a large walrus wearing an apron and a chef hat while wielding a comically big cleaver. "Ah yummy! Fresh meat for my pot!" The walrus exclaims excitedly as he gave chase after the bandicoot.

They ran down the long hallway as Crash jumps over the many holes in the floor and moves to the side away from the many nitro crates that sat in his path.

The walrus ran through everything, hopping over the gaps and through the explosive crates, not flinching in the slightest or even showing any pain. There was a door up ahead that Crash rushed for, making it through and watching as the door slams shut on the walrus.

"Come back here, fresh meat!" he demanded, busting through the door like it was nothing.

Crash was beginning to feel tired from all the running when another door was up ahead. This time, the door was a thick, metal blast door that Crash past through.

The door came down hard and stopped the walrus in his tracks for good; Crash took a breather while hearing the walrus whack his cleaver on the metallic door to no avail.

The final short hallway lead Crash outside where a floating platform remains. Crash got on and waited as the platform took him above the center of the ship on a circular floating platform.

"So, you've finally arrived, bandicoot! Prepare to meet your doom!" N. Gin taunts, pulling a lever to his side.

A barrage of missiles came out a cannon behind N. Gin and descended with parachutes on the back as they attempt to land on Crash as he ran around the platform. Soon, N. Gin made an attempt to throw an active TNT crate down at the bandicoot.

Crash tricked the short villain into throwing the TNT at one of the three support beams holding up the cannon platform.

The battle continues the same way for another two times until N. Gin threw the last crate at the final support beam. All of the platform drops down to the ground below while Crash and N. Gin float humorously until they both fell.

Unfortunately for N. Gin, he lands directly on top a pile of TNT crates on the ship and awaits the inevitable. 3... 2... 1... BOOM!

Crash was launched off the ship from the resulting explosion and he lands back on the snow covered grounds, forming an angel within the snow.

* * *

In another area on Wumpa Island, John and Candlehead stood at the entrance to a large factory, receiving a call from Tails.

"John, Crash has took down N. Gin's ship. It's up to you now to destroy that factory." Tails informs John as he and Candlehead proceed inside. "Roger that, Tails. Let's bring this place down!"

The area inside consists of multiple conveyor belts with metal materials on them, they're being moved around the factory to create the parts for the enemy's weapon.

John and Candlehead hitch a ride on one of the belts going diagonally-upwards. "We can take this way up to the room over there." John explains as he points to one room high up. Soon, they found themselves in trouble.

A few scientist clones saw as they stood on the conveyor belt and proceed to open fire; Candlehead quickly ducks when John activates his suit and launches himself at them to begin fighting.

Their plasma pistols show no effort when they harmlessly bounce off his armor and disappear. "Is that all you got?" John taunts as he swings his sword at them.

Candlehead continues to ride the belt upwards until she notices a dropping point ahead. Below the dropping point was a big box of metal piling up. She panics and tries to run back down which only slows down her inevitable fate. She saw another belt to the side leading somewhere else and she has an idea.

"John, follow me!" She yells, getting the boy's attention as he looks down at the other belt leading into another room.

Without a second to spare, Candlehead leaps onto the other conveyor belt and ducks as she enters a small opening that took her into another room. "Hey, wait for me!" John slashed at the final scientist before leaping onto the same belt.

Once they both were in the second room, multiple generators to power the entire factory were positioned far ahead.

"Candlehead, you thinking what I'm thinking?" John hints at the little ditz who only responds with stupidity, "Baking a big cake with the furnace?" John looks confused until he reveals, "What? No! I'm thinking we blow this place sky high."

More clones came running into the area. This time, many of them were holding beakers of chemicals and were throwing them at the two, trying to hit them with an explosive blast.

"Just get over to those generators while I keep these guys off your back!" He instructed as he took off again to fight some more. Candlehead ran across the belt while hopping down onto others to make her way across.

Strangely, more clones came in wearing different clothing and appearing as if to dress up from different time periods; a few clones wearing knight's armor came in with swords to battle. John ran at the three knights so fast, they didn't have time to ready their swords and he thrusts at the one in the middle to knock him down. The one clone to his right swung the sword downwards but misses as the boy dodges and strikes the clone into the wall. The third almost succeeded with a swing behind John until the latter swiftly places the sword behind his back to block the attack and kick the clone with so much force off the platform.

While trying not to trip over the many materials scattered all over the path in front of her, Candlehead rushes for the generators while trying to avoid getting hit by the beakers thrown at her. One of the scientists threw a beaker that nearly struck the girl if only she hadn't caught it.

The scientists gasp in fear as the little ditz returns fire, the beaker explodes after making contact with one of them, setting off a small chain reaction. "Take that!" Candlehead cockily yelps, pumping her fist.

"C'mon, I fought better villains than you!" John rudely insults the many clones in front of him, until he head loud stomping behind him. John turns to see an abnormally large and buff, double headed, wooden club wielding mutation of a clone looking down at him. "Ahh, crap..."

Finally, Candlehead has made it to the generators and she looks back at John, "I made it, John!" She notifies, watching as John is flung across the room.

The mutated clone comes down to ground level to confront the boy as he tries to stand back up from landing on and crashing through a conveyor belt.

"Candlehead..." John pauses as he spits blood out of his mouth, "overload the generators." he adds. The mutation stands above him as it prepares to slam the club down; John pushes himself back up, kicking the mutation in both faces.

As the clones cheer on for their own mutant clone, Candlehead observes the generators before randomly pressing buttons and hoping for the best.

The mutant swings its club around, smashing it on the belts and destroying them as John constantly dodges each attack. "Come on! I can do better than that!" He taunts, angering it.

The generators soon go out of control thanks to Candlehead mashing on the buttons; all of the clones see her and they suddenly begin attacking with plasma weapons. Each shot bounce off the generators and Candlehead hides while still overloading them.

John lures the mutant back to a power box on the wall. With each swing, he dodges and lures it.

A toolbox falls down in front of Candlehead, she gets an idea. She picks up as many small tools and remains behind cover while readying herself.

One of the clones came close to find her when suddenly, he collapses after a wrench hits him on the head; the clones continue to fire as Candlehead throws more tools from different areas behind the generators.

When John brought the double headed mutant close, he disarms it from using the club with his sword and back flips over and behind it while drop-kicking the mutation into the power box faces first, electrocuting it.

John saw the clones attack Candlehead and he came to her rescue. He threw his sword in a boomerang motion at the rest of them, watching as the sword ricochets off each one at a time and wiping them out within seconds.

Once everything was safe, Candlehead came running out from cover to John, hugging him as she does. "Thanks for that, John." She praises. John lifts her up and holds her in his arm while raising the other and extending it out towards the generators.

"Let's get out of here!" John suggests as he shoots out multiple tiny explosive mines at them; Candlehead holds on tight as John initiates the thrusters in the armor to fly and escape from the factory as the mines begins to explode and causing a chain reaction that spreads throughout the entire place, bringing it down for good.

"Tails, we're done here! How is Sonic doing?" John politely asks while flying away.

* * *

Earlier in the Doominator, Cortex and Eggman were monitoring the progression on the humongous robot when a voice calls out. "Master! Tiny has brought shiny thing!" Tiny came rushing in, dropping Metal Sonic on the table.

"Well done, Tiny! Where's Dingodile?" Cortex questions, noticing the lack of Dingodile. "Puny boy and blue pet attacked us!" Tiny exclaims, showing injuries on his body.

"I take it those two nuisances have found out about our plan from that minion of yours." Eggman implies, approaching the table and grabbing Metal Sonic. "I would hate it if that infernal bandicoot were to get involved in all of this!" Cortex frustratingly says as they receive a transmission call.

As they establish the connection, N. Gin suddenly cries out, sounding worried in the process, "Master, Crash has destroyed my battleship!"

Upon hearing the disappointing news, Cortex slams his fists down in rage and replies, "Can I just have one good news instead of hearing about Crash for once?!" Eggman opens a part of Metal and pulls out something small but shining bright.

It was a Chaos Emerald. Cortex, Uka Uka and Tiny stare at its beauty and hypnotising appearance.

"With this Chaos Emerald, the Doominator will receive a massive boost in power and our enemies will struggle to defeat us. We'll be unstoppable!" Eggman explains and boasts with an evil laugh.

"And we can conquer the arcade while enslaving everyone! I think I should visit your game some time to look for these things." Cortex adds before chuckling.

* * *

On the Cortex Vortex, Sonic is teleported at the lower levels of the station. "Ok Tails, I'm in." Sonic let's out as he steps off the transporter. "Good work, Sonic. Now, the Cortex Vortex seems to be running on some sort of power from a crystal. Find that crystal and destroy it."

Tails hangs up and Sonic begins running around the enormous space station. Along the way, many robots attempt to stop him by shooting lasers and activating traps to slow him down.

More clones of many types also assist the robots to stop Sonic from foiling their master's plan.

"I guess these guys won't let up without a fight!" Sonic says to himself, acknowledging the challenges ahead of him.

Unfortunately for the Blue Blur, he lands on a large and spacious treadmill floor which keeps him running on the spot.

A scientist wearing a hazmat suit stands behind Sonic and unloads toxic substance out onto the treadmill from a gun while three others appear in front of him, throwing beakers onto the treadmill, slowing knocking Sonic back into the toxic substance.

Going into a figure eight, Sonic speeds up and blasts through the three like they were nothing. Many of the traps would either try to crush him but were too slow or fire at him but would miss.

Eventually, Sonic came to a large area and falls down a pit before landing on a floating platform. "Woah, that was too close..." He mumbles, looking down into the blackness below.

Another platform passes by with an individual standing on it, holding a big tuning fork in hand and looking like he is made from clocks. "Who are you?" he forcefully questions, pointing at Sonic. "I'm Sonic, Sonic the Hedgehog! And I am here to end this evil scheme!"

The tall individual gives Sonic a puzzled look, stroking his chin with his hand. "Hmm, seems like we anticipated the wrong rodent. I am Dr. Nefarious Tropy, and I am here to put an end to this little charade!" He insists, slamming the tuning fork down.

His platform quickly leaves the area as more arrive for Sonic to jump across, making it into the next room where he comes across a lot of tricky and narrow pathways.

"Heh, no problem." Feeling confident, Sonic rubs his nose before dashing across and carefully boosting through any more robots that stand in his way. Even the many random wooden crates that seem to be littered all over the entire place prove no worth in stopping the hedgehog in his tracks.

After going through more difficult sections of the station, Sonic arrives down where the crystal is being used. Two large platforms and a wide gap between them; N. Tropy stands on the opposite side where the crystal resides.

"It's _time_ to put an end to this foolish game!" N. Tropy declared, jumping and slamming the fork down, causing shock waves to shoot for Sonic.

The shock waves strike the hedgehog down after knocking him off his feet. He flips back up and prepares to battle as more shock waves comes to him.

A few small square platforms rose up from the abyss below and Sonic uses them to get closer to N. Tropy to perform a home-attack on the villain. Reacting to the attack, N. Tropy warps away to the other side, the side Sonic came from.

"Ugh! You little vermin! This time, I will strike you down!" He intimidated, spawning an electrical line that covers the entire platform's length and sends it back and forth to try and hit Sonic.

N. Tropy spawns a wall of electricity behind the hedgehog and slowly pulls it towards himself. Sonic hops across the platforms again to attack.

Warping back to his original spot, N. Tropy has had enough. He sends out multiple waves of electricity while also spawning in more lines to keep Sonic busy; Sonic notices only one platform slowly ascending from the bottom that N. Tropy can't see.

After the multiple attacks, N. Tropy smirks evilly as he makes two electric walls appear in front and behind of Sonic, slowly closing in on him.

"Your _time_ is up, hedgehog!" N. Tropy sneered at the hedgehog's impending doom, watching as he instead jumps and drops into the pit below.

Believing the battle to be over, the ticking maniac laughs as he looks below, only to be disappointed to see Sonic Spin-Dashing on the platform as it rises up and with no time to react, Sonic dashes into the villain.

The impact sends N. Tropy into the crystal in the machine that powers the entire station, smashing it into many pieces as everything suddenly powers down. "Now look at what you have done! This station is on its way down to earth!" he panics and begins to warp away slowly, before adding "Now, you can only count down to the end of your life with what time you have!"

Sonic looks around the station as the warning alarm echoes the place and the Cortex Vortex slowly falls back down to Wumpa Island with him still in it.

* * *

 **So, Sonic is stuck inside the space station as it falls back down to earth. It wouldn't be his first time.**

 **Currently, I have started working on my next major project for fanfiction and I intend to upload it once I have at least two or maybe all three current stories completed. I can say, this story is almost finished.**

 **This is S3AN06, signing off, adios!**


	35. The Doom of the Doominator

**Coming together, the team prepare for the final battle against the Doominator.**

* * *

At the very center of Wumpa Island, Crash, John and Candlehead all met up after completing their tasks.

"Glad to see you're still in one piece, Crash." John said. Crash casually gave John the thumbs up and made gibberish noises. "Where's Sonic?" Candlehead asks the two, noticing Sonic isn't there.

Suddenly, a loud roar filled the skies as they look up and see a very large space station come falling down to the island. "Isn't that the Vortex...?" John questions, worried he may be right. It comes crashing down hard and fast into the mountains and most of the wreckage collapses down the side of it.

The trio rush to the wreckage and search through everything. One of them lifts up a large piece of metal to find Sonic trapped under it. "Guys, a little help?" He asks, looking at the three staring down at him.

Together, they pulled everything of the hedgehog until he was free.

"Thanks for that. Now that that's out of the way with. What now?" the hedgehog continues to ask. "I guess the final thing is that." John says, pointing towards the final objective, Cortex's airship.

The airship is attached to a chain coming from the mountain side to keep it in place and a small lift connects itself to the floating balloon.

All four prepare themselves as they head towards the lift and board it, waiting for it to take them onto the airship.

While heading up, the team discuss their next move. "Alright, we succeeded in destroying the weapons ship, the factory, and the Cortex Vortex. I expect an ambush to be waiting for us on that airship." John advises his team. During the silence, Candlehead spoke up, "Sonic, how did you survive that back there?" The three just looked down at her.

Inside, the four noticed no security around. It was as if they were being invited in.

"Keep an eye out, everyone." John warns them all, slowly walking into the center room. Before they could react, the airship suddenly goes into lock-down, covering every window with shutters and all the lights go out.

Two speakers embedded within the walls activate and a voice comes through. "Haha! You fell into my trap, you moronic imbeciles!" Dr. Cortex taunts as the airship began floating high up in the sky. Every monitor big and small lit up with a set of numbers, counting down from one minute.

Behind everyone appeared Metal Sonic, who was upgraded with better armor to his body.

As the time continues to count down, Metal assaults the team, kicking Crash out of the way to land on the spot. Sonic throws a punch that Metal Sonic blocks and returns with an attack; Crash attempts to stand up but is knocked back down when Sonic was thrown into him. John swings away with his sword at the robot from behind, though misses when Metal quickly dodges to the side, grabs the sword, and throws it at the boy who too dodges, and barely feels the sword scratch his armor suit.

The two engage in a close quarters combat, throwing multiple punches and kicks until one of them were eventually defeated. Metal kicks John's stomach hard and slams both hands on his head, stunning the boy.

Candlehead shrieks in horror and rushes to John's help; Metal Sonic approaches the girl who panics.

"Crash, quickly spin me into him!" Sonic commanded, initiating his Spin-Dash and Crash spinning into him, creating a ricochet sound and shooting Sonic at the distracted Metal Sonic.

The hard-hitting impact disabled the blue robot temporarily. John recovers thanks to Candlehead and before anyone were able to celebrate, they notice the twenty seconds time limit. "What will we do?" Candlehead fearfully questions, hugging into John.

Immediately, John shoots a small mine dart at a bare wall and covering the little ditz from the explosion that created a hole.

"Everybody out!" John yelled, picking up Candlehead and diving out. Sonic Spin-Dashes again but towards the mountains and rolls down them while Crash picks up Metal Sonic's body and leaps out to use the robot's body to break his fall. John lands on his back, softening the fall for himself and Candlehead.

All four of them watch as the airship explodes like a massive firework in the sky. "Yes! Piece of cake!" Sonic cheers.

The ground begins to shake as a gigantic shadow overwhelms them and they slowly turn to the sighing of the Doominator coming towards them. Another loudspeaker activates as Cortex speaks through a microphone.

"Well, well. They finally did it. You may have destroyed N. Gin's battleship, my factory, space station, and airship, but you will never destroy the Doominator. Thanks to the precious gemstone that is the Chaos Emerald, this brilliant masterpiece is now an unstoppable weapon of mass destruction!"

After speaking, Cortex controls the Doominator and makes it slam its left arm down at where the four stand, forcing them to avoid the attack.

Candlehead runs away to hide while John, Sonic and Crash prepare themselves for a difficult battle. Sonic runs towards the large robot and runs up the body at super fast speed, jumping off the body to perform a home-attack; the Doominator swung its arm at the hedgehog, sending him back to the ground.

Sonic remains injured on the ground, groaning in pain. The Doominator goes to slam its arm onto the defenceless hedgehog, until John throws his sword to knock it out of the way.

While it was distracted, John quickly rushes to help Sonic up on his feet. "Sonic, you ok?" John asks, pulling him up. "I've seen better days..." he mumbles in response.

"Doesn't look like we'll be able to destroy that thing if we attack it directly. I will need you and Crash to- Hey, where's Crash?" John looks around the scenery for the bandicoot, finally locating him climbing the side of the Doominator's tread and up through a small hidden entryway. "Crash, what the hell is up to...?" John adds on.

Crash finds his way inside the giant robot, climbing through all the mechanics and gears that seem to be in the way. Progressing upwards carefully.

A plasma comes towards the two as they gawk at Crash, forcing John to throw Sonic to the side while he dodges to the opposite side too. Inside the arms of the robot were large plasma cannons.

As it ceases firing, the robot launches two big missiles from its back. Sonic notices the missile heading towards him and he acts fast; John back flips over the second that came at him.

"Is that all you got?!" John insultingly mocks, waving his arms like an idiot. The same missile he evades makes a U-turn and homes in on him, making him turn to grab and hold it in place. "WHAT?!" Shocked, Cortex cries, watching as John catches the missile and aims at the robot.

"Hey doc, have a taste of your own medicine!" John lets go off the missile, sending it back to where it came from; Cortex swiftly motions the Doominator to smack the missile, causing it to explode in reaction.

Sonic ran around the island with the missile in tow; he leads it back to the Doominator from behind, hopping onto the missile and riding it until a certain distance so he can jump off.

It strikes the Doominator, damaging it greatly and throwing Cortex away from the controls momentarily. During its time of idle, John used the remaining dart mines his armor suit had to launch them all at the destructive machine, damaging parts of it.

Inside the head of the robot, Cortex stumbles as he tries to gain control of his movement but falls down. Eggman takes over immediately and scolds the doctor, "You fight like an amateur! Let me show you how it's really done!"

Once in his control, Eggman controls the Doominator to spam the missiles and fires both plasma cannons, ensuring to hit the missiles close to either John or Sonic.

Crash enters the main room of the Doominator's body; Cortex sees the bandicoot's arrival and enters a stationary battle mech, the Arachnina, a spider bot.

The two ran at each other; Crash slid under the mech as Cortex forces a powerful swing with the saw blade on the spider bot's arm, completely missing the bandicoot. After sliding under, Crash turned around and ran for the back of the Arachnina, quickly climbing up the back of it and reaching the controls, hijacking the mech.

Three large gears within the room are used to allow the Doominator to function; Crash hijacks the Arachnina while fighting Cortex and directs the spider bot towards one of the three gears. Crash slamming Cortex's head on the console causes the Arachnina to throw the saw blade into the gear and destroying it.

Outside, John is hiding behind cover as many missiles were exploding everywhere; Sonic boosts around the island as super sonic speed, avoiding as many missiles as possible.

"This is madness!" John exclaims. Every time he tries to peak around cover, an explosion forces him to hide behind cover over and over again.

"Sonic, I need you to lure those missiles into that thing again." He tells the hedgehog who acknowledges, "Got it!"

With all the missiles following him, Sonic brought them all directly towards the Doominator, but strikes one specific area with them all: the back. The massive damage blows up every other missile that were remaining inside, stopping the missile onslaught.

"Grrrr! You'll pay for that, you blue fool!" Eggman screams through the microphone.

At this moment, Sonic home-attacks multiple spots all over the Doominator. John finally gets his chance to fight too as he hovers to damage the Doominator with his sword.

Crash runs around inside the head of the robot as Cortex chases him like a cat chases a mouse; the Arachnina changes from the humanoid form into a spider form. A laser is also used that Crash barely dodges.

"Get back here, you idiotic bandicoot!" Cortex demanded, chasing the bandicoot around. The laser almost hits Eggman, distracting him from fighting.

Crash lured Cortex into the second gear, climbing up the gear itself and letting the doctor tear it down just to try and reach him. With the second gear gone, the team is close to winning.

Furious, Eggman uses the huge claws of the Doominator to swipe down at the ground, attempting to hit both heroes. Sonic is unfortunately caught and the plasma cannon prepares to fire, initiating a charge up. John lands on the arm and slashes at many parts to hopefully disable the arm and release Sonic. "You're done for, hedgehog!" Eggman celebrates prematurely.

The cannon is almost ready to fire, and John is failing to stop it. Cortex has finally gotten a hold of Crash and he throws him to the wall.

"Three. Two. One..." Eggman counts down to Sonic's impending doom as he slowly lowers his finger to a singular button. Sonic gulps as his end is about to arrive.

Just as Eggman is about to press the button, a small lead pipe struck the doctor's hand hard, injuring it badly. "OW! Who done that?!" Eggman looked around behind him, seeing Crash arming himself with more tools as weapons. Cortex charges at the bandicoot to pummel him. Crash takes a large wrench and another lead pipe and throws the latter at Cortex's head, stunning him and causing him to trip up the Arachnina.

The orange bandicoot used the Arachnina's body as a platform to run up on and make a big jump to throw the wrench at the Doominator's control panel, damaging it badly and allowing the claw that is holding Sonic to let him go.

Crash kicks Cortex out of the spider bot and regains control of it the second time and uses it to destroy the third and final gear.

"NO! DON'T DESTROY THAT GEAR!" Eggman madly pleads, running for the bandicoot as he continues to hit the gear until it ceased to function. With all three gears now gone, the Doominator is unable to do anything.

Sonic lands safely on the ground and watches at the giant robot remains still. "Hey Sonic, batter up!" John yells down from top of the mountain behind the hedgehog, positioning his sword like a baseball bat.

Grinning and nodding, Sonic revs up a powerful Spin-Dash and blasts up the mountain at high speed; John swings the flat side of his sword so hard and sends Sonic at the center of the Doominator like a bullet, penetrating through it and defeating it and the two doctors.

All of the Doominator comes crashing down and covers the area in metal; junk flies everywhere as the two hide from being crushed.

Emerging from the wreckage, Crash celebrates as he usually does and falls over to the ground. John and Sonic join the bandicoot; "Oh yeah! We did it!" Sonic pumps his fist and raises it in the air.

The pile of metal shake as something else bursts out, it was Cortex in a UFO shaped aerial vehicle. "Curse you all! You may have stopped my plan for world domination, but I will return!" Cortex said as he leaves, laughing hysterically as he does so.

Crash immediately follows after Cortex in an attempt to stop him, leaving the two behind to deal with their business.

Eggman came crawling out of the wreckage and straight into John and Sonic, "Oh crud..." The two pull the evil doctor onto his feet and John cuffs him. "Candlehead, you can come out now. Candlehead?" John received no answer from the little ditz until more of the wreckage began to move when even Candlehead came out holding something.

"Hey, look what I found!" Candlehead reveals a Chaos Emerald, the same one the two doctors used on the Doominator. "I almost forgot that!" John points out humorously.

Candlehead gave Sonic the Chaos Emerald and the three guide Eggman out of the game.

* * *

Upon returning to Chrometech, a few guards came to take over and guide Eggman to a cell as many prisoners watch. X watches and chuckles while smirking. John also came down to watch Eggman get put into a cell and he turns to face X within his.

"What are you looking at?" John questions. X crosses his arms and acts all tough at the boy, "A dumbass, that's who." Some of the other prisoners hear and react with laughter.

John approaches X's cell, angry at the former mob boss. "You think you're so smart and tough, don't you? You're in a cell, and I'm out here, watching you rot away like the sad man you are."

As John proceeds to leave, X turns his back against him and leaves one final comment, "Not for long..." John stops for a moment to take in what he said before eventually leaving.

He arrives in the briefing room where everyone were waiting in. "Today was a long day... I really need to rest." John utters as he places his sword down and sits.

"Well, with Dr. Eggman once again behind bars, we can all rest. Good work everyone!" Doktor congratulates the three.

Sonic lays with his legs on the table and juggles the Chaos Emerald in the air, "Hopefully this time, Egghead doesn't break out." he says. Suddenly, something came crashing through the roof and into the room on top of the table. It was Metal Sonic who reactivated himself.

It grabs Sonic's foot and throws him away as well as kick John in the face, knocking him out of his chair. The Chaos Emerald drops on the floor and as Metal notices, Doktor began firing on the blue robot with a gun.

Metal Sonic retaliates with his chest cannon, firing a laser that Doktor dodges by pouncing to the ground. Sonic Spin-Dashes at the robot but was deflected.

Candlehead runs for the Chaos Emerald and grabs it; Metal Sonic prepares to fire a second time until John jumps and grabs it from behind, directing its aim to the ceiling. He grabbed the nearest sharp item, a small knife from the bench he fell onto, and used it to stab into Metal's body to destroy his CPU and other important parts.

The robot drops down lifeless and John pushes it off the table as he too climbs off. "Ok, I'm done here. See ya..." John awkwardly limps his way out of the room as Candlehead followed behind.

Sonic got up and got the emerald of the little girl and collected Metal Sonic's body, leaving Doktor disgusted by all the mess.

* * *

 **Sorry to those that have been waiting a while for this chapter. This was meant to be uploaded on the 29th last month. I mentioned that I wasn't feeling well in my last uploaded chapter (Pyrokinesis Candlehead chapter 5) and I still didn't recover by the time this chapter was meant to be up, but I'm feeling better now.**

 **These chapters will be uploaded at the usual time from now on. Also, my upcoming Sonic fanfic is halfway through planning and I'm also starting to type up the first few chapters as I continue to work on it.**

 **This is S3AN06 signing out, adios!**


	36. The Long Hunt

One day in Sugar Rush, John is leaving Vanellope's castle to head over to Chrometech. While on the way there, a mailman suddenly walks up to him. "Are you John McCoy?" The old mailman asks politely, opening his mail bag.

"Umm... yes." John was confused, he didn't expect mail but decided to see what it was. The old man gave him a small letter before leaving the boy alone.

John opens the letter to see coordinates, noticing the location. "Why would anyone send me to the central station?" He thought to himself, pondering as he turns to head for the exit.

John doesn't have his sword or suit as they were needing repairs since the last time he used them.

* * *

In the Game Central Station, John stood among a massive crowd of game characters, looking around for the exact location.

"Ally, please identify these coordinates." John pleads as he holds the letter close to his bionic arm and Ally commences scanning on a small sensor on the side. " _Scanning complete. Location identified._ "

John turns to look at the help desk; a small note is stuck on the side with the word "clue" written on it.

He takes a look at the note, finding that it's a photo of a big fountain somewhere along with more coordinates written on the bottom. He allows Ally to scan those coordinates too while cautiously looking around him for anything suspicious.

" _Location identified: SimCity._ " John raised an eyebrow for a moment before heading to the game itself, unaware that someone was indeed watching him...

* * *

While John was in the game, he found the fountain from the photo and stands to look around, surrounded by many causal citizens going around and doing their thing.

"Who would make me go around like this? Ally, did you scan the photo and letter for any hand prints?" He curiously questions as Ally immediately replies, " _No traces of hand or finger prints were detected._ "

John took a closer look at the fountain, noticing there was another note stuck in the fountain at the center. Without caring, John climbs into the fountain, getting wet and a lot of attention. He gets the note and slowly climbs out despite people questioning his weird decision to go into the fountain.

Looking at the note, a message is written on it: " _Up top the roof where you can see, the blinking red lights is where I will be._ "

John looks up at the tall building in front of him and sees how high up it goes. Before he heads inside, he takes the moment to visit a laundry center to dry all his clothes.

Once he enters the building, he finds an elevator to enter, pressing on the highest floor he can access. Though many people do take over the elevator, making his ride up their a living hell; the music was a cliche as it could get as John sighs deeply.

At the highest floor, the way up to the roof was across the hall, though a security guard wonders the floor and stops the boy.

"You lost, little boy?" The guard interrogates, placing his hand on John's shoulder as he then brushes it off. "If I was lost, I wouldn't be here. I'm going up to the roof." he retorts, walking towards the doors leading up; the guard rushes ahead of him.

The guard stops John on the spot, "Woah, where do you think you're going, kid? You're not going up onto the roof!" He stands in front of the door, blocking the way.

John growls as he turns away and walks away from the security guard. "Ally, I need your help. I need a way to distract the guard to get up to the roof." John informs the A.I. as it begins constructing a holographic VR plan from the arm.

John follows the VR accordingly, beginning with waiting until the guard is distracted by a random employee in the building. Then, John sees as the janitor begins mopping the floors clean; John sneaks over to the janitor's trolley and gets the bucket of dirty water to quickly drop some of it on the floor behind the janitor as he slowly backs up from mopping in front. As the janitor backs up into the puddle of dirty water, he slips and falls, forcing the guard and employee to help him up.

As the security guard moves away, John darts for the door and runs up the stairs up to the roof.

Up top, John could see the whole city around him. A lot of buildings and busy roads and a great view of the ocean ahead.

"Now to find those red lights..." he utters, looking out in the distance carefully. Soon, he finds a few red lights flashing on the roof of a warehouse on the docks, believing that to be the next destination.

John goes back down the stairs and makes his way to the elevator, watching as the janitor sits in a chair, rubbing his head and covered in dirt. "Hope he's ok..." John instead finds a vending machine nearby and buys a cold can of Cola to give to the janitor.

"Here, sorry to see you fall like that." He apologises to the old janitor who was unaware that John caused him to trip. "Thanks, kid."

He finally gets on the elevator and leaves the building before anything unwanted happens.

* * *

At the docks, John walks along the area, acknowledging the lack of life around. Many of the warehouses lined across the docks were locked except for one which was slightly open.

He cautiously enters, seeing that it is full of stacked boxes and other items big and small. It was dark and difficult to see anything until he flipped a switch to turn the lights on. "Hello?! Anyone home?!" John calls out to no answer.

Up in the manager's office above, John could see a silhouette moving around near the windows, moving very unnatural.

He goes up and barges his way into the office, finding it empty of life but unfortunate to see a stack of explosives about to blow and a hole in the ceiling. The explosives detonate, pushing the boy far back down the stairs.

Fire began spreading all around the warehouse on all the boxes and it spreads fast, soon bringing the place down in a fiery blaze.

John groans in pain as he attempts to crawl his way out of the burning warehouse. He makes it halfway through before collapsing from the explosion and lack of oxygen.

As the fire continues to burn the place down, a small figure rushes in to pull John's unconscious body out into the open.

Water splashes over John's face as it awakens him, making him cough some of it out of his mouth. The small figure came over to check him and asks " _John, are you ok_?" A Japanese female voice was heard as he looks down to see Minty Sakura.

"Minty? What are you doing here? How did you know I was here?" He interrogates the little girl. He was able to understand what she is saying despite only speaking in Japanese. " _I saw you acting weird in Game Central Station and followed you here. I thought you might need help._ " Minty explains.

John looks up at the warehouse behind him. So much black smoke emerges from the building as some of the fire dies down.

"Thanks, I guess. I could use the backup." John insists, getting up off the ground and walking away from the area with Minty by his side.

* * *

Back at the city fountain, the two sat at a bench together as John begins explaining to the racer why he was here. "It started when I received a letter from an unknown person. I followed the coordinates around which lead me here and to that warehouse. I think someone is trying to kill me."

Minty observes the notes given to her by him and speaks up, " _I wouldn't know who. I'm glad I decided to follow you when I did._ " John chuckles and rubs the girl's hair in response, "I'm glad you did."

The two sat there for a while, taking a short break from what happened earlier; many of the citizens continue to do their normal thing except for one.

"Minty, look at that guy." John instructs as he points at a thug-like man enters an alleyway with a suspicious look on his face. The two proceed to stalk him in.

Within the darkest parts of the alleyway, the two watch behind dustbin cans as the man met up with a few other shady looking people. They talk among themselves as the two listen in.

"Yo, did you hear from the boss?" The thug asks the other man who responds, "Yeah, he said you didn't place enough goddamn explosives to kill the kid." The three circle the individual as he starts to feel threatened.

"Oh, c'mon guys. I didn't have time to put more down. The little punk was there when I placed most of it down!" The thug answers back when the two on his side crack their knuckles and the one in the middle finishes. "Not our problem. The boss said to silence you if you failed to complete your task."

The thug backs up into the dustbins, knocking them over and exposing both John and Minty.

"Well, look who it is! It's the kid! Let's cut off his head and bring it to the boss, eh fellas?" The man smirks with evil intentions as he and the three approach the two while the thug runs to hide in a dumpster.

The two on the side proceed to attack John; the guy on the left threw the first punch as John throws it off and knees him in the stomach before throwing him to the floor. The second guy runs at John and pins him up against the wall while trying to strangle and punch him. John raises his bionic arm as a wire extends from it and shocks the guy off.

The leader confronts Minty, feeling cocky due to their size difference, "Well well, it's just you and me, girly." He raises his leg to kick her but fails as she quickly dodges to the side and leap up on it and again to return a kick to the face.

The guy flinches from the surprising attack and notices his nose bleeding. "You'll pay for that!" He pounces down at Minty, missing and falling over.

One of the two minions throws another punch at John as he ducks and rising back up with an uppercut to the chin, followed by a powerful kick to the chest to immediately knock the guy down onto a few bins, knocking him unconscious.

The second minion recovers from the electric shock to swing his leg around in a roundhouse attack. John takes it from behind which knocks him forward.

He takes the lids of the bins and throws them at the second minion like frisbees; the first strikes the crotch, the second in the abdomen and the third at the head, also rendering the guy unconscious, leaving the leader.

The final guy continuously tries to kick Minty as he moves out of the way. He fails to notice John's fist heading his way as John knocks him out cold.

The one thug that was hiding got pulled out of the dumpster as John holds him up high against the wall and starts to interrogate him.

"Who hired you to try and kill me?!" The man gulps in fear as he attempts to answer. "I-I don't know! Those guys j-just told me what to do. I swear I don't know who hired them! They don't tell me anyth-"

Suddenly, a small yet poisonous dart strikes the thug's neck and more also hits the other three as it kills them all instantly.

" _John, up there!_ " Minty yells as they both look up on the roof. A ninja in dark navy blue watches them before escaping, forcing the two to give chase.

* * *

The ninja escapes to an abandoned school that has a lot of demolition vehicles outside and no one around to use them.

John and Minty search through the school corridors, leading them into the gym where they find the ninja waiting for them. Minty gets out of the way and stands in a safe spot as John confronts the ninja.

"Alright, Shi. What's your game?" John demands for answers as the ninja refuses to respond; the ninja's face was well concealed from revealing the identity.

He drew a katana from his back and slowly moves around the boy who is unarmed.

Swiftly, the ninja thrusts towards John and begins swinging the sword in many ways at the boy, making him dodge as much as he can, even sliding under a sword swing and up behind the skilled warrior. Surprisingly, the ninja hops high up in the air and slams down on John as he catches the katana with his bionic arm.

"Ha! Got you now!" John taunts as he kicks his mysterious enemy off of him and taking the katana to arm himself.

There was another katana that the ninja draws; the two go at each other, swinging their blades viciously at each other and deflecting them. The enemy made it hard for John to fight back due to his fast dodges and strong parries.

When John tried to attack at one point, the ninja jumps back a safe distance and takes out a few shurikens and launches them at the boy; John dodges all of them and they land near Minty.

The two clash swords again until the ninja kicks John down on the floor and attempting to slash down again.

John held the katana up to keep the ninja back as he presses down on him. A shuriken cuts the ninja's arm; Minty prepares to throw more as the ninja backs off and sheathes his blade.

A small drop of blood drips onto the floor, forcing the enemy to take a napkin out to clean it up and take the blood covered shuriken with him as he yet again escapes by jumping out of the gym through the skylights.

" _John, you ok_?" Minty comes to his aid, helping him up as they inspect the other blade. "Yeah, but who was that?" The two ponder.

* * *

Nighttime arrives over the enormous city as the two go to leave the game. " _That was weird. Why did that ninja clean up his own blood like that_?" Minty puts forward as John replies, groaning in pain in the process.

"He wanted to cover up any evidence of his identity so we don't find out who he really is. He's smart, I'll give him that." John is still holding onto the katana as the leave.

Though Minty still continues to question the boy with curiosity, " _What do we do now_?" John stops to look back at her.

"I have an idea. Let's just head back for now, it's getting late." He said as they board the train-cart to make their way back to Game Central Station.

* * *

 **Three chapters left in this story. I'm excited to finally finish this story, it would make typing the other two current stories a whole lot easier.**


	37. Ninja Hunt

**Gathering his friends, John intends to find the same ninja that attacked him the night before.**

* * *

On his way to the briefing room in Chrometech, John gathers his notes on a clipboard as Doktor catches up to him. "John, is this really necessary? I get you want help from your friends and comrades alike, but I didn't expect you to bring Tessa, Appollo and Tsubasa into this." Doktor worryingly said.

John turns to face the old scientist outside the briefing room and responds, "Yes, it is. I need all the help I can get with this one."

The boy opens the door to the room as a lot of people were around the table and communicating among each other. John inches his way through the crowd, making it to the front to begin giving his briefing.

"Guys, I need your attention." John announces but no one listens. Everyone is talking aloud and John is becoming impatient, "Guys, guys!"

While everyone were still talking, John took out his handgun and fired upwards, shutting everyone up immediately. "Finally, I got your attention..." he pauses to whisper to himself "I'm not paying for that ceiling..."

"Why are we all here, John?" James question from the crowd. Doktor loaded up the main monitor for all to see as John starts the briefing, "Last night, I was attacked by a ninja and thanks to Minty who assisted me then, she was able to sketch out this resemblance of the suspect. I need everyone's help in tracking this guy down."

As an image of the ninja appears on the big screen, one of the random soldiers shout out "So what do you expect us to do? Find an amateur dressed up in a ninja suit that a little girl could beat and you couldn't?" Many of the other soldiers laugh until John angrily retorts, "First of, yes, I expect you to get off your lazy ass and find a ninja. Secondly, maybe you should go a round against Minty and find out who's the amateur here."

After the soldier shuts up, John continues to speak. "Anyway... This ninja is skilled and highly dangerous, and taking him on alone is a bad idea. I thought it was Shi, but this is someone we haven't seen before, so locating him will be difficult."

Instantly, everyone resume talking among themselves. John sighs heavily and proceeds to take out his gun. Doktor came forth next to John and aided him, "If anyone is successful in capturing said ninja, they will get a bonus and a raise."

The whole room fell silent for a moment, every soldier looking at Doktor with a blank expression. They then all got up and rushed out of the door as well as John's friends.

John came running to the door and watches them all leave as he yells "Guys, there are sketch papers of the ninja down at the exit! Take one and look for that exact one!" He follows them out too while Doktor looks up at the ceiling and watches the dust fall from the bullet hole.

"Why is it this room specifically that always gets destroyed...?"

* * *

As many of the soldiers head out of the building fast like fans chasing a celebrity after a concert, John saw Appollo, Tessa and Tsubasa team up as they prepare to look around for the ninja. John approaches them and begins talking to them.

"Glad to see you three getting along." he said, smiling down at them. "Tsubasa and Appollo let me join them so we can share the reward together." Tessa proclaims as she and the two brothers high five each other.

"You all will make a great team together, but if you see that ninja, inform me immediately. I don't want you three getting into a fight against someone stronger." John insists.

The three nod and walk away as they wave back at John. John utters to himself quietly "Now to get my team ready..."

Almost an hour later, John has brought along both Candlehead and Minty Sakura with him as they travel to the Game Central Station. "Candlehead, why are you dressed like a ninja?" John asks, looking confused as the little ditz wears a common black ninja outfit with a toy katana on her back.

"I'm becoming a ninja to think like one and to blend in with the shadows." she says, making Minty giggle and John face palm. "That makes no sense, but ok."

John takes out a small list of games with ninjas in as Minty speaks up " _Ninjas keep out of sight and blend in with the shadows to avoid detection. We should keep aware of our surroundings._ "

On the list, most of the games that exist were based on what games Litwak owned and though there are a lot of them, the boy only wrote down the important ones.

* * *

Their first game they visit it Shinobi. The three venture in, looking around for any life within the bamboo forest while Minty and Candlehead observe the beauty of the nature that surrounds them.

"This place is amazing!" Candlehead exclaims excitedly, running ahead of the two and admiring everything. " _I wish we could visit these places more often. Whoever chose to live in a bodacious place like this has a great taste in nature._ " Minty comments.

They travel down a path, leading them to a small temple-like house at the end of the forest with a gorgeous flower bed on each side at the front.

"I feel like we're being watched..." John quietly said as he reaches for his sword. A ninja in white shot down from the bamboo trees with his katana and attempted to hit John from behind but being quick, the boy blocks the attack and knocks the ninja back.

" _State your business here, invaders._ " The ninja turns out to be Joe Musashi, the one and only Shinobi. He remained in a protective stance with his blade at the ready.

Minty came forth and responded, " _My friends and I are here looking for someone. Have you seen this person around?_ " She handed him a photocopied image of the main ninja enemy they are after.

Joe sheathed his sword and observed the image closely. " _No. No such ninja of this design exists here._ "

"Have you seen him before outside of your own game?" John asks, though Joe struggles to understand English. "Minty, please translate that." He adds.

" _Have you seen this figure outside the game before?_ " Minty translates to which Joe shook his head. "That crosses off one game. Tell him I said thanks for his time." John instructs the racer. " _Thank you for your time._ " Minty bows with her hands in the sleeves of her kimono; John waves as Candlehead mimics Minty.

Joe initates a specific pose and disappears almost instantly. Candlehead was amazed at the ninja's exit while they prepare to leave the game. "Why do ninjas have to make such an exit?" John rhetorically puts out as Minty laughs.

* * *

The next game the three visit is Mortal Kombat. Halfway in, Candlehead stops and backs up nervously.

"Candlehead, you ok?" John asks, noticing the little girl breathing heavily. "I came here before once... I never wanted to come back here again!" she bawls out, shaking on the spot.

"It's just a violent video game. It's not like you will be attacked or anything bad." He said as he held his hand out to her. Candlehead hesitated until she made her mind up and decided to come along, holding John's hand like a kid with their parent.

As they enter the game, they find themselves within the Wu Shi Academy. On the lei tai platform were a large number of Shaolin monks with Liu Kang and Kung Lao meditating together; Minty brings Candlehead along with her to watch them as John climbs up the stairs to confront both Rayden and Sonya as they were monitoring the monks.

"And who might you be?" Rayden questions the boy, standing with his arms crossed. "I'm here with my friends to look for somebody and I was hoping you might know this guy?" John said as he hands them an image of the ninja. They both looked at the image before responding, "I don't believe we had any ninjas like that here, especially in our allied clans, the Lin Kuei and the Shirai Ryu." the lightning god spoke out.

Sonya couldn't find any clan markings on the ninja's outfit either and backs up Rayden's statement, "Our spies within the Black Dragon group haven't reported any ninjas. I doubt the Red Dragon would have any too."

The boy sighs and replies, "Thanks for your cooperation and sorry to interrupt you two." He turned to walk down the stairs when suddenly, a portal appeared on the far side.

An army of Tarkatan warriors came charging out of the portal and towards the Shaolin monks on the platform, where Minty and Candlehead were in between the two. Minty stood to guard Candlehead when one Tarkatan proceeds to attack them, until John swiftly gets in the way and impales the creature with his sword. "Let's go!" He commanded as the two began running out of the game.

Two more went to attack John as he got his gun out and shot one in the head and the other in the stomach as it got close; John threw a hard punch on the second Tarkatan and hurried out afterwards to let the monks deal with the oncoming assault.

Outside the game, the three sat on the seats attached to the walls while out of breath. "Candlehead... don't say a word..." John told the little ditz as she smirks.

The boy takes out the list and marks off Mortal Kombat from the list. " _I think we should try Ninja Gaiden next._ " Minty suggests as she looks down the list and Candlehead asks "Guys, how long will we be doing this?"

John answers back casually with "Not for long." He pauses for a moment which worries the two girls when they see John's eyes widen.

"He said _'Not for long...',_ I wonder if he has something to do with this..." he says, confusing the two. John makes a call back to Chrometech for Doktor. "Dok, I need you to interrogate X and see what he knows about that ninja. I have a feeling he might be involved in this whole thing."

"I will begin one right away." Doktor acknowledges his request before hanging up.

John got off the seat and headed into another game with the two following behind. " _Where are we going, John?_ " Minty wanted to know as John briefly informed her, "I think I might know someone that can help us."

A moment later, the three stood outside a dojo training center and entered immediately find the person they needed to see. The man is Axel Stone, former ex-cop and now a dojo instructor. "Axel Stone?" John came towards the man as he carried his bag of equipment on his back and responds, "Who's asking?"

John begins to heavily inform the individual, "I'm part of a peace-keeping company for the arcade. We're currently tracking down a ninja but with no indication of what game he is from. We're here to ask you if you know about this man and could tell us anything you know about Mr. X?"

Axel analysed the image carefully. "He looks like one of the ninjas from my game, Streets of Rage. Currently, the game no longer exists in the arcade after Litwak sold the cartridges a few weeks ago, and most of the characters were able to escape while others like Dr. Zan and Adam stayed behind. I knew X would make it out and I heard of what happened to him and Dahm, but I never got the news about X's bodyguard, Shiva. If he too escaped, he might be the guy you're looking for."

"Do you have any photos of what this Shiva character looks like?" John interrogates but to his disappointment, Axel simply shook his head.

After this, the three planned to leave. "Anyway, thanks for your time." John appreciated as Axel made a request, "No problem. If you do find Shiva, give him a good beating for my friends." John nodded and gave a thumbs up.

* * *

Back in the central station, the three sat back down and took a break from hunting.

"Well, we're on the right track it seems. We just got to find this guy and see if he's the one we're looking for." Johns states as they were eating random food they bought from a takeaway store in the previous game.

While they were eating the food, the three watched as the many game characters carry on with their day, interacting with each other and wondering around.

They spent the 15 minutes sitting there and eating the food when John receives a call over comms. "John, we found the ninja!" Tessa excitedly announces, prompting John to learn more as the brothers add on "We saw him head into Golden Axe./We're currently following him."

The three got up and went into Golden Axe to find the three kids. "Keep following him but don't give yourselves away. I'm on my way." He said before hanging up.

* * *

Tessa, Appollo and Tsubasa followed the ninja to a wooden theatre when John, Minty and Candlehead caught up with them.

"'Bout time you made it." Appollo sneered as they hide at the entrance to the large structure. They look in but couldn't see anything from all the blackness that consumes the interior. "Everyone, I want you all to head back to Chrometech and get backup. Stay there until I get back." John ordered.

All five agreed to listen to him and they left the game. John progresses inside the theatre, carefully making his way through the dark until he came to the stage area.

There was the ninja communicating with a tall and armoured figure who talked in a serpent-like language, " _I will not partake in your master's plan to control the arcade, foolish warrior._ "

For the first time, John heard the ninja speak but in Japanese back at Death Adder who stood on the stage, " _The only foolish person here is you. Once my master has control over the arcade, you will regret declining our offer._ "

John remained quiet as possible, but then the ninja threw a ninja dart at the wall John hid behind. Without saying another word, the ninja escaped from the theatre as John reveals himself and emerges.

Death Adder leaps off the stage and almost kills John with his axe but misses. " _Little peasant, you are not worthy to beat me!_ " Adder taunts as John taunts back "Worthy? The only thing you're worthy of is kissing my boots!"

Adder swings his axe a few times at the boy who quickly dodges each swing, and returns with an attack by slashing at the armour and damaging it. The evil tyrant uses a magic attack to make the ground shake and throw John off balance, giving Adder the chance to kick the boy hard to the ground.

Standing over John, Death Adder raises his axe and prepares to slam down until John raises his bionic arm and flashes bright lights in his eyes, blinding him.

Once he got back up, John kicks Adder so hard, the armoured emperor stumbled backwards into a scaffolding made entirely out of wood and it collapses on him as he falls into it. John grabbed a lit torch and throws it into the pile of wood to burn the enemy alive while walking away.

Grunting, Adder got back up as the fire proved futile in harming him. John notices and in confusion, he watches as the opponent strips away from his armour and forms into a serpent creature.

The fire begins spreading around the theatre slowly, trapping the two inside as they continue to battle.

" _Stupid boy. This is where your grave will be as you burn with the rest of this place._ " Death Adder threatens before pouncing at him. John rolls out of the way and runs around the transformed Adder and avoiding the fire he breathes out.

"If I am going to die here, I'm dragging you with me to hell!" He yells out, jumping at the serpent and hitting the lower abdomen with his sword, slicing deep.

Death Adder swipes with his claws while chasing John within the small spacing they have as the fire engulfs most of the place.

Moments later, a helicopter flies in and appears above the theatre with a ladder descending. "John, quickly climb up before the place burns down!" James orders over a loud speaker. John fires two ice grenades to freeze Death Adder in place while he makes a mad dash for the ladder and climbs it.

The evil serpent breaks out of the ice and attempts to jump up and pull down on the ladder as the helicopter rises back up, but John quickly stomps Death Adder in the face and knocks him back down in the burning theatre and watches as it consumes him. The helicopter turns to leave the game as John watches the destruction below him.

* * *

 **I said "ninja" so many times in this chapter, I lost count. Also, I'm one of those people that spell his name as Rayden, not Raiden.**

 **Two more chapters remain in this story.**


	38. When Things Come Crashing Down

**Things quickly turn south when an unfortunate event happens at Chrometech.**

* * *

A week has passed since John fought Death Adder within the theatre and ever since then, he has continued to search for the ninja within the many games in the arcade.

John sat alone within the briefing room with gathered notes scattered on the table; he tries to piece them together but struggles to as there should be more to add to make the answer clear.

Feeling lost, he rests his head on his hands that position themselves on the table as if he were crying. "John?" Candlehead spoke up beside him as he turns to look down at her, wondering how she got in the room without making a noise.

"You ok?" She asks, placing her hand on his arm. "I am, it's just this is confusing. The things that X said during the interrogation made no sense." He responds, sighing in the process.

"You've been working on this for a week. Lucy and the others are worried. I'm worried... Will everything be ok?" Candlehead asks as she hugs into him. John replies with a hug, "Everything will be alright, Candlehead."

In Doktor's office, Doktor is talking to a new employee who is deciding to sign on to work for Chrometech. "Our company needs the set of skills you possess, Mr..." Dok pauses to wait for the employee to say his name.

"Just call me... Zan." The man smirks. He's wearing a black business suit and has his hair kept down in a hidden black hair bobble. Doktor and many others were unaware that the man before them is indeed the same ninja they all been after.

"Very well. Welcome aboard, Zan. I shall give you a tour of this facility." Doktor said as he shook hands with Shiva.

* * *

Almost an hour has passed and in the briefing room, John and Candlehead joke around talking about random things.

"...and I said 'What do I look like to you? A doctor? Get outta here!' Everyone burst out into laughter." John quips, causing Candlehead to laugh hysterically as the former joins in. The two wipe away tears dripping from their eyes as they try to control their laughter.

Soon, Doktor and Shiva enter the briefing room at the end of the tour, "And here is the briefing room where we organise our missions and give the mission objectives to our soldiers." The scientist explained as they approach both John and Candlehead as they stand to meet the new "employee". "And these two are John and Candlehead. I would like to introduce to you two Zan, our new recruit."

As expected by Shiva, John also falls for his plan as the boy speaks up and says "Welcome to the team, Zan. It's an honour to have you working with us." Shiva chuckles and responds, " _Happy_ to be a part of a peace-keeping company to establish peace within our beloved arcade."

Though the three seem to be getting along, Candlehead stared directly at the man with a shocked expression. "Candlehead?" John notices as he and the others look back.

Candlehead thought back to the time when X infiltrated Chrometech and while she was hiding inside the Metal Gear Excelsus, spying on X with his thugs disguised as Chrometech soldiers... and Shiva by his side.

"Umm... she's never really like this." John said to Shiva, still believing he's Zan. Shiva gave Candlehead a serious look.

Suddenly, Candlehead reaches out for John's gun from his holster and points it at the man. "What the hell?!" John exclaimed in sudden shock. Doktor and John backed up while Shiva slowly inches his way to the girl.

"John, this guy is working for X! He was there with him when he got in here last time!" She told him, surprising the two as John goes to reach out for Shiva.

Within a flash, Shiva rips off the business suit and reveals his iconic fighting outfit while also grabbing Candlehead and holding her hostage and taking the gun to aim at her head. Shiva takes the hair bobble out and lets his hair loose; on his arm is a scar that barely healed and in the same spot where Minty threw the ninja weapon.

While holding the little ditz close, Shiva backed up to the main computer behind him to operate it.

"So you're the one we were looking for the whole time! Shiva from Streets of Rage. Just as Axel said." Join points out. Shiva retorts "For a kid who thinks he's pretty smart, you're honestly stupid."

While close to the computer, Shiva interacts with it, releasing many of the prisoners within their cells. X is able to get out of his and starts a riot.

On the monitor, the four could see the massive riot going on all over the entire facility. Many of the soldiers try to fight back but are attacked by the prisoners as they take over.

"Once my master gets here, he will have control over you all and the arcade will be his to conquer." Shiva says, aiming the gun at John and Doktor. John looks down at Candlehead, slightly nodding down to her to signal her. Candlehead elbows Shiva in the crotch to stun him, allowing her to escape from his grasp as she runs towards John and Doktor while they escape from the room and out into the hallway. Shiva begins chasing after them as he fires upon them.

As they run down a long corridor and turn a corner, Shiva fires at them, only hitting Doktor in the arm.

They escape into an elevator which takes them down a floor to escape from Shiva. "Dok, are you ok?" John asks, taking out spare tissue paper he has in his pockets to apply to the wound.

"It's only a minor wound. We need to get out of here." Doktor instructs as he holds the tissue papers close to his arm.

Once the doors open, they rush out and find a small group of prisoners running towards them with melee weapons. John stands in front to defend Doktor and Candlehead when someone behind the group fires at them to save the three.

They see James armed with an assault rifle as he walks over to them along with Cheri.

"James! We're glad to see you right now!" Candlehead happily exclaims. "What the hell is going on?! How did these prisoners get out?" James interrogated as John begins to explain while they head back down the hallway, "One of X's men, Shiva, disguised himself as a recruitment to get in easily and he took Candlehead hostage to get access to the main computer, letting everyone out."

Just as they make it outside the armoury, X along with a few thugs confront them.

"Well, well... look at what we have here, boys. The group of dumbasses and the one retard that put us all behind bars." X announces aloud, angering the thugs by him.

John walks forward slightly, retorting while secretly putting in the access code for the armoury door to unlock, "Whatever. I'd love to stay and chat and all, but I have one thing to tell you..." During the long pause, the door to the armoury open and the group run in while John continues "You're a despicable piece of crap and your so-called bodyguard got beaten up by a little girl!"

John runs inside and slams the door shut while at the same time, Candlehead's pet Cy-bug, Spark attacks X by pouncing on his face as the thugs try to get it off.

In the armoury, the others run through to the vehicle hangar while Candlehead watches from the small monitor mounted in the wall what's going on outside the room. X manages to yank the Cy-bug off his face and throw it to the floor before crushing it to death.

"SPARK! NO!" Candlehead cries out as John pulls her away and run for the hangar.

While going through and making it to the large shutters, John begins explaining his plan to the others, "We need to warn the others and figure out a way to stop this. Find who we can in the arcade to help us control the situation." John turns the switch to open the shutters as they all stand outside.

While they walk forward to leave, John quickly takes off his friendship ring and amulet to put them on the ground and backs up inside to close the shutters on them.

Candlehead turns to run towards John but was too late. "Forget me, just warn the others!" John shouts fast as the shutters close on his friends. Candlehead bangs her fist on the metal surface until she bursts into tears. Cheri came to guide her away as they all leave.

John sighs deeply, feeling a tear run down the side of his face before he turns to leave the hangar to try and sort things out.

* * *

John forces his way through some of the prisoners that got in his way, taking them down one by one until he made it to the briefing room and rushes to operate the computer.

He goes through the multiple files and begins sending them to a single folder while giving Ally an order, "Ally, I need you to make this folder encrypted. Hide it away from X so he doesn't find it on this computer."

A loading bar came up which surprisingly uploads every important file into the folder quickly before becoming inaccessible due to the encryption. " _Anything else you want me to do, boss?_ " The A.I. questions as John remains silent, closes his eyes and replies back, "Shut down everything on this computer and throughout the facility. Do not reactivate at all until I say the following password and only by me: 'Lucy'. You got that?"

Suddenly, everything on the computer deactivated as instructed as X, Shiva and multiple goons burst through the doors and surround John.

"Have at him, boys." X said. All many of the thugs came at John as he holds against some of them before being overpowered and beaten. X and Shiva came close as the other hold him in place on his knees.

The two villains look down at him, X smirking in delight at his fallen enemy. "Any last words before you spend the rest of your life stuck in hell here?" The mob boss asks.

"Just one... Hey Shiva... how does it feel to be beaten by a little girl?" John laughs before the bodyguard knocks the boy out with a kick to the face.

* * *

 **X has now finally took over Chrometech and John is now in a spot of trouble. Their fates will be revealed in the final chapter.**

 **One more chapter to go and I am deciding to upload it this Friday along with an additional author's notes chapter a few hours after the final chapter goes up.**

 **This is S3AN06 signing off, adios!**


	39. Fight to the End

**The final chapter concludes as a rebellious group fight back against X who has control over Chrometech.**

* * *

Three slow months of X controlling the entire arcade through the use of Chrometech caused everyone to hide in fear as the mad mob boss became untouchable through his access to powerful weapons and machinery. During the three months, the arcade continued as normal in the eyes of gamers, but as the arcade closes, every game character immediately hide within secret areas in their games to avoid coming across X's thugs and corrupted former Chrometech guards.

The Sugar Rush racers have been continuing their regular racing during arcade hours until Litwak closes down; everyone making a mad dash for the Diet Cola Mountain as soon as the arcade closes and if they feel they're being followed, they do what they can to shake off their pursuers.

One afternoon after Litwak closes the arcade for the weekend, James prepares to leave Chrometech when a regular thug at the main entrance stops him. "Where you goin', pretty boy?" The thug sarcastically asks, placing his hand on James' chest to stop him.

James grabbed the man's arm and threw it off him before back answering, "None of your business, buddy! Get back to work, or things won't be pretty when X finds out you've been slacking off!"

The thug sighs and mumbles something James couldn't quite make out. The latter finally leaves the base and heads down a long stretching road, looking back every two minutes before going towards Diet Cola Mountain.

While approaching the secret entrance to the unfinished interior of the bottle-shaped mountain, James ensured that no one was following him as he walked through the holographic wall.

Inside the mountain were many Chrometech soldiers that escaped from the horrific events three months ago, and many Sugar Rush citizens plus the racers and their parents. Doktor, Vanellope and a few others gathered around a table with a map layout of the facility to help them plan out a retaliation in hopes to win back their base and hopefully regain control of the arcade.

"...so if we can position our men out here and send in a small group to unlock the main gates, they can storm the base and fight back." Doktor elaborates, moving multiple small figurines around the map.

James watches before coming close to interact with Cheri. "You ok?" He politely asks, hugging her as she was glad to see him back safe.

He works for Doktor as always but has taken it upon himself to pose as a double agent, working for X only to gain crucial information on what X has planned and what's going on in the base.

"I'm fine, really. But I was so worried if something bad had happened to you while you were pretending to work for that evil man..." She expresses while hugging him tightly like a kid with their teddy bear. "Don't worry about me, I'll be ok." He responds back, kissing Cheri on the head.

"Candlehead is wanting to see you over there." She points to an isolated area in the place where he could barely see light poking out from Candlehead's candlehat.

James soon goes over to see the little ditz as she sits alone, facing the wall and feeling depressed; she held John's belongings close to her to keep safe. Candlehead heard James behind her and listened to what he had to say.

"I was able to see John today, not for long though. He seems to be fine for the most part, but I can't seem him holding on for much longer, especially after all that torture he endured." James regretfully informs her as she continues to look down at the friendship ring and amulet with sadness.

"I miss him so much..." She murmurs with tears slowly running down her face.

"I know, Candlehead. We all do..."

* * *

In one of the cells at Chrometech, John sat on the floor, covered in cuts and bruises while also missing his bionic arm. Many other former Chrometech guards were also stuck in the other cells.

The door to the prison area opens as X came in to look down at John with delight, seeing his nemesis behind bars to satisfy his revenge. "Isn't it funny how ironic fate can be? I mean, I'm standing out here, reaming about as I please while you're trapped behind these bars, in the same cell as you had me in a few months back, no less."

John refuses to turn to face his enemy, but decides to respond to him, "Laugh all you want, but nothing will protect you when I break outta here and get my hands on you!" In response, X laughed hysterically, earning disgusted looks from the others in the cells.

"I'd love to see you try, boy!" X said, leaving the room while still letting out random moments of laughter, lighting up a cigar.

John looked back when X was gone. His whole body shook from all the torture he went through as it impacted him emotionally; John punched the wall in front of him out of anger and sighs deeply with the feeling of regret.

X made his way through the facility and into the vehicle hangar, activating a secret elevator to take him down to a larger room below, housing a modified Metal Gear Excelsus that Dr. Dahm is working on.

At the sight of X entering the room, Dahm expresses disappointment, groaning and refusing to look at the mob boss in the eyes.

"How's my big toy coming along?" X questioned the scientist who gathered notes on a clipboard and looked at the giant mech. "T-the test shows r-remarkable results, proving the armour t-to be highly durable. The weapons a-are... as we expected, as they can destroy almost an-anything." The scientist stutters, showing obvious fear over the man in charge.

X gave Dahm a strange look as the latter noticeably sweats. "You better not be messing with my plan here, doc. Remember, I only kept you alive so I can use you to build my army. If you just as much as think about sabotaging my plan, you can kiss your life goodbye! Got it?" X threatened.

Dahm gulped and slightly nodded, showing a weak smile until X finally decided to leave the room. The nervous scientist wiped his head in relief, continuing his work in peace.

* * *

After four hours slowly went by, the resistance group back in Diet Cola Mountain began finalising their plans. "We shall position the army outside the base in this spot here where they will be unseen by the enemy. A stealth team will wait here after disposing the guards by the hangar entrance here and wait for James to enter the base normally and make his way down there to let them in; he will guide them to the main entrance where they will take out the patrolling guards here and let in the army to commence the battle." Doktor carefully gave an explanation of their plan to everyone during the presentation.

James stood by the old man's side until Candlehead came up to him. "I'm coming along too." She confidently said in front of everyone. Doktor got down on his knees to face the girl, "This is a dangerous mission for you to be tagging along."

"John risked his life for us all many times before, always getting in the way of danger to protect us. I want to repay him by helping him escape from there." Candlehead proudly says.

Many of the soldiers watching all began talking among themselves until Lucy spoke up for everyone to hear her, "You can do it, Candlehead. I believe in you!" Soon, the other racers and characters join in as they too encourage the little girl, where she looks back at the two beside her with a smile.

"Alright... we'll send you in with the stealth team. Take a firearm with you just in case." Doktor told her as James questions her, "Hopefully all that gun training helped?"

Candlehead extends her arm and signals the man to give her his handgun. Once he gave her it, she aimed for one of the random Mentos stalactites and fired at it with great accuracy, watching as pieces of Mentos falls into the boiling hot Cola below and creates a small eruption. Candlehead handed the gun back and winked.

"Yeah, she's ready." James quips. "Very well. We'll carry out the mission immediately." Doktor announces as all the soldiers equip their weapons and head out to Chrometech with James and Candlehead following them.

* * *

The army position themselves outside the base and behind the wall to avoid being seen as James enters the base. The stealth team along with Candlehead go around the side to make it to the shutters.

Inside, James travels down to the vehicle hangar alone as planned but then comes across two corrupted Chrometech guards posted in the area. He goes up to them.

"X just sent me down here, he wants to see you two in the briefing room." James tell the two as they leave without questioning him, falling for his lie. Once they were gone, he turns the switch to open the shutters and sees one of the guards collapse from being knocked out by the stealth team.

"Right on time." one of the team members quietly says.

They all leave the hangar and exit the armoury where no corrupt guards or thugs patrol. "Candlehead, go down that way to find the prison area. There should be two guards outside it." James lets her know as she arms herself and runs down the hallway to find her way there. James guides the stealth team back to the main entrance, carefully disposing of anyone they come by.

Once they make it to the entrance, James aims his assault rifle and shoots at the thugs guarding the main gates while the stealth crew let the entire army in.

Their roars of anger alerts the entire base as all of X's men run to battle the invading army.

In the prison area, John and the other prisoners hear the ongoing battle as they all get up to look out the cell windows. Two loud gunshots were also heard outside as the doors open and one of the thug's bodies fall in; Candlehead steps over and picks up the keys to the cells.

"Candlehead?!" John lets out in surprise as the little ditz immediately sees him and rushes to unlock his cell. "John! I'm so glad to see you!" Candlehead cries, hugging the boy tightly after three months of not seeing each other.

"I'm glad to see you too, Candlehead! But how did you learn to fire a gun like that? You hit them both in the head from what I can see." He questions.

Candlehead giggles and gave him the answer, "James taught me." John pinches his eyes and jokes "I'm gonna kill that man." Candlehead gives John his belongings she kept safe as he says "Let's get to work."

They unlock the remaining cells before leaving the area with the Chrometech prisoners. John looks for a spare armoured suit and sword while Candlehead finds a way out of the facility.

A few minutes later, X enters the underground lab where Excelsus is being constructed in to board the mech when the sound of a familiar voice is heard over the PA system, "Three months of hell is over, X. I hope you got something to try and stop me from coming after you because I will find you and end this, and I won't stop until I succeed or die trying... boy!"

The sound of John's voice makes Dahm laugh with excitement until a quick bullet to his head struck him down. X threw his gun as he climbed into the mech and started it up.

John left the briefing room where he used the PA system, he saw Shiva approach him from the other side of the hallway after he closes the doors.

"You're dead, kid!" Shiva threatened as he came running towards the boy. Shiva performs a flying kick as John dodges to the side, following up by sweeping the expert fighter off the ground with his left foot and quickly end the short encounter with a roundhouse kick to the stomach with his right foot, sending the man crashing through the window and wall into the briefing room. Shiva is knocked out cold, leaving John to find X.

* * *

The boy enters the gigantic vehicle hangar, finding the place empty, even missing the many jeeps and other vehicles that were in there.

Suddenly, the ground starts to shake when down the center of the room, a gap widens as the floor opens to reveal a platform below rising up with a heavily modified Excelsus on it.

"How do you like my new toy?! I'm gonna crush you with it!" X shouts through the microphone as Excelsus moves, generating loud, obnoxious sounds of metal scraping together and the mech roaring loudly.

X attacks first by sweeping the left pincer blade down at John. The latter jumps over to dodge and runs around the spot to avoid the other pincer blade as X begins using them both to hit the boy.

One of them catches him and hits John down hard before attempting to slam the heated part on top; John stops it with his sword as the two blades clash. After X raises the blade up to try with the other one, John makes a quick escape from the ground and fires a mine dart at one blade, blowing it off.

"You'll pay for that!" X retaliates with the plasma cannons, aiming and firing down at the ground and chasing his enemy with them.

John slips past the plasma lasers and slides until one of the legs of the robot attempts to crush him. John holds the foot up as it pressures him, getting heavier each second the more it forces down on him.

X saw this moment to slowly guide a plasma laser towards John while he is trapped.

As the boy felt the heat of the laser and the pressure of the foot above him, he feels as if there's no way to escape impending doom.

"You're not... winning this time!" John screams as he aims his bionic arm out at the plasma cannon and commands "Deploy grenade!" A small grenade is shot out and lands within the barrel of the cannon. The explosion causes both cannons to blow up along with the grenade and throws Excelsus off John, allowing him to get up.

After recovering from the explosion, X attacks with the remaining pincer heat blade as John swings his sword like a baseball bat with so much force, he slices the blade off the giant mech.

With X being unable to attack with weapons, John uses one of the pincer blades to break inside Excelsus' body from behind by using it like a massive sword.

The boy makes it inside the robot and looks for the core. " _This should be easy, just like last time._ " He says in his head as he carefully moves through the insides to find the core guarded by an impenetrable metal shield spinning around at a fast pace.

Luckily, a hole was made in the shield so that anyone could make adjustments to the core while it remains still.

" _If I can just land a perfect shot..._ " He carefully aims at the core and waits for a perfect moment to shoot a mine dart through the hole. The first shot misses and sticks to the shield, blowing up after a few seconds and throwing John off; the second shot ricochets off the shield and into a wall, leaving John with one more dart.

John made the final attempt, taking aim and waiting again. It felt as if time and everything around him was slowing down as he saw the opportunity to fire.

The dart goes through the hole and lands on the core as John has a three second window to run away; the core blows up and sets off a chain reaction around the body of the Metal Gear as parts of it explodes into many pieces and scatter all over the hangar. John escapes from Excelsus' body just in time and ducks behind cover for safety.

The entire room was a mess, covered in multiple parts from Excelsus' pieces as John emerges from cover to observe his surroundings.

X came crawling out from under most of the wreckage with torn clothing and bruising all over him. He thought he could sneak by and escape from John until he spots him, "Hey! Get back here!"

The mob boss crawls faster to try and get away but runs himself into a dead end. X turns to face John in fear of dying when John readies his sword to strike.

Thrusting forward, John stabs his sword into the thick sheet of metal sticking out of the ground behind X, almost hitting the man's head as he flinches and looks up at the boy.

"It's over, X." John insists, taking the sword out of Excelsus' armour and turning to leave the room. "I'm locking you up in here until everything has been sorted out. Then I'm sending a squad to come collect you and take you back to your cell where you will live the rest of your worthless life there." The boy says.

X notices a small metal pipe next to him from the mech and gets the idea to attack John from behind with it.

While John's back was facing X, the man got up to rush at him from behind, preparing to swing at his head until a loud gunshot was heard, and X's body collapses to the floor with a hole in his head.

John looks at both the body as it lays there lifeless and the one responsible for pulling the trigger: Candlehead.

She slowly approaches X's body as John speaks up, "Candlehead, I-" he was interrupted by the girl constantly firing down at the body in random spots, emptying the magazine in her gun and still pulling on the trigger as clicking sounds were the only thing heard.

He raised his hand to take the gun off her as she tearfully hugs him tightly. "I'm sorry, John... I didn't know what to do..." Candlehead apologises as John got down to his knees and hugged her back.

"You saved my life there. That's all that matters now." John says as he comforts her.

After a moment of silence, the two stop hugging as John proceeds to decapitate X's head from his body and carry it outside to the view of all the enemies fighting the heroes. The violent sight causes them all to stop and surrender themselves, ending the war.

* * *

"Guess _it's time to wrap this whole thing up. It took a while for us to clean up after what X had done to both Chrometech and the arcade world, but we managed. We apprehended his thugs and placed them in their cells while giving some of those soldiers that betrayed us a choice: work for us again to redeem themselves, or simply join the rest of X's men. We lost a lot of good people during that day, but we will continue to protect the arcade to honour them and their final moments to fight back for the safety of the_ arcade." John narrates some time after the battle.

In the briefing room, Doktor reactivates the computer until a voice recognition was required to restore everything they had. John said the password loud and clear "Lucy." and Ally suddenly appeared to help fix everything.

"Peekaboo!" Lucy joyfully says as she surprises John from behind. The two smile and hugged before sharing a kiss.

" _Not everyone were left with a bad ending. Just days after everything went back to normal, Dok and I took our time to search throughout the entirety of Sugar Rush for something that Candlehead misses so much._ "

Candlehead wore a blindfold as Doktor came into the room, holding something. "Hold out your hands." He instructed. Candlehead held out her hands as Doktor placed the thing on them; John removed the blindfolds when Candlehead saw what she was holding, Spark.

She became very excited and happy and hugged the small Cy-bug as it extends its two front legs around her shoulders to hug her back.

"We found it somewhere within the candy cane forest. Dok was able to transport Spark's coding from Hero's Duty to Sugar Rush, allowing it to regenerate here if it died here." John explained to the little ditz as she got up to kiss John on the cheek. "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" She constantly appreciated.

" _I thought hard about what I wanted to do after all of this and so I came to see Doktor about it in his office._ "

"You're resigning from Chrometech?!" Doktor bawls in shock at the boy's decision. John nods with confidence before responding, "The pressure of everything that I been through is getting to me and I want to just relax now."

Doktor took off his glasses to give them a clean, wiping the lenses with his shirt as he continues to question his choice, "You sure you want to do this?"

"Yeah, I've made up my mind now." The boy said.

The two shook hands as John adds on, "I know I'm gonna miss working here, but it has been a pleasure working with you, Dok." Doktor smiles back, agreeing with him, "Indeed it has, John." The two stop shaking hands as John then proceeds to leave before stopping to look back at his old boss.

"If you ever need my help, you know where to look for me. I'll be happy to help out!" He assured him.

" _Luckily, Dok was ok with this, and I did say that I will be there if he or anyone ever needs me, no matter what for._ "

Outside the base, he meets up with Candlehead and asks her an important question, "You ready, Candlehead?" She replies before the two fist bump. "As ready as I'll ever be."

The two leave Sugar Rush to start their game jumping adventures, unsure of what fun awaits them.

* * *

 **The end.**

 **Later today, I will upload another chapter which will explain a few things about A Gamer's Life, and other important stuff I have to share with you.**

 **Who enjoyed the whole story and stuck with it until the end? I'd love to hear your thoughts about the story and what you liked/disliked about it.**


	40. End Game (Notes)

**And we're finally at the end of the story!**

A Gamer's Life has been my longest developed fanfiction story, starting in 2013 with multiple ideas but begun uploading this story in 2016. It went through three different ideas before I decided to go with this current idea and it has been a fun time working on this one story for the past two years (though it should've been one year).

The reason it took this long to finish was due to college getting in the way of my spare time and also having multiple other stories being worked on and uploaded (though most of them have been removed for specific reasons).

The first idea I planned was when one day in the arcade world, many of the codings within the games go haywire and somehow construct a new character by combining the coding together and they create John with superhuman abilities and also with a sword. He would be sent into Sugar Rush via meteorite after creation where Candlehead investigates the crash sight and was spooked off by John, so he follows her back to the starting of a race where three Metal Gear Rays suddenly attack. This story originally started off as a crossover between Sugar Rush and Metal Gear Rising.

The second idea was about John being a character within a random game popular in the early 90s until it got unplugged in the late 2000s, forcing John to escape and ponders if he was the only one successful to get out on time. The difference between this and the previous idea is that John is a regular human which A Gamer's Life uses for its plot. Homeless, John would one day go into Sugar Rush to watch the racers in action until he notices someone leaving Cy-bug eggs in an attempt to ruin games and get them unplugged.

The final idea is this one, A Gamer's Life. It combines the ideas from the first story where John is sent into the gaming world and one MGR character, Doktor, soon appears to help him and Candlehead. The idea it takes from the other story about him being a regular human with no powers.

At the end of every five chapters (except for chapter 35), there would be bloopers for the current chapter and previous four. These were added at the last minute just to have some fun as if the whole fanfic was being filmed.

I want to give special shout outs to user jubileena for letting me use Tessa Loveday, to the user TheDisneyFan365 for letting me use both Anthony the Nightmare King and Octavian, and a good friend of mine for the characters Tsubasa and Appollo Dreampoint. Using these characters within this story was a blast and it has been interesting to see how they would interact with John and the others within this story. Thank you!

My favourite chapters within this story were Sticky Situation, Missing Candlehat, Halloween Bash, Ice Blast, Christmas Spirit, Parental Guidance, Citrusella's Secret, Birthday Boy, Attack of the Fifty Foot Minty, Ditz Day, Lending A Hand, Problems and The Long Hunt. Least favourite is Trial & No Error because it didn't have much for the four characters to do to escape from captive; this chapter was intended to have a Saw styled setup.

 **A couple announcements here:**

Since a few characters like Ivan and Shi never appeared in the final chapter or had their conclusions, I will be planning a sequel to this story that will be released some time soon. Simply a continuation of the story, but will focus more on the game jumping aspect of the Wreck-it Ralph franchise.

I will be working on Kirby & Sonic: Heroes Unite, a crossover title between the two, until that's finished. After that, I will be uploading my next major fanfiction, Sonic: Dystopia, but only when I have a decent amount of chapters ready and I am close to the end of the planning schedule. If it's not ready to be uploaded, I will begin uploading a separate Kirby fanfic story until it's ready.

And that is all I have to say. Thank you all for spending the time to read this story! I hope you enjoyed it as well as have a fantastic time on here to read all the many other great stories too! This is S3AN06 signing off, adios!


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